These are testing times for Captain Glen Patrick Aroza’s family. The Mangalore-born captain ofPanama-flagged carrier MT Tosa has been in the custody of the Taiwanese coastal police for almost a year now. Aroza, whose ship accidentally collided with a Taiwanese fishing vessel that sank on April 4,2009, has been charged of‘involuntary manslaughter’.
Interestingly, according to a report, Aroza’s ship never collided with the fishing vessel and authorities have found no evidence of collision as the ship’s paint was intact.The fishing vessel and the crew on the trawler were safe.
Aroza was tried on August 20, 2009, at Hualien County in Taiwan.To make it worse, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has done little to secure his release. Sources in the MEA told DNA that “India has just maintained minimal diplomatic connections with that country.”
Back in the Aroza household in Bendoor, Mangalore, his wife Preetha is uncertain about her husband’s future. “Nobody in the corridors of power has come to our help. But I haven’t given up my struggle to get him back,” she says.
Comments