Seafarer’s death: Bombay HC seeks DG Shipping’s stand on family’s plea

The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Directorate General of Shipping, under the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, to state its position on a petition seeking DNA test on the remains of Dixit Solanki, an Indian seafarer who died in a missile strike on a vessel off the Oman coast during the West Asia war.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad heard submissions that the vessel MKD Vyom, on which Dixit served as an oiler in the engine room, could bring to India only a few bone fragments.

Advocate Pradnya Talekar, appearing for Dixit’s family, told the Bench that the ship’s captain had provided differing information from March 1. “We were told that Dixit was injured, then that he was missing, and later that he had died.”