MUMBAI: The police are yet to gather evidence in the collision between foreign vessel MV Nordlake and Naval Warship INS Vindhyagiri that partially sunk after the accident on Sunday.
The police will try to access the footage recorded by the Ship Voyage Data Recorder (SVDR) of both the ships.
Deputy commissioner of police (ports) Quaiser Khalid said, "The MV Nordlake vessel's captain said he did not have the expertise to access the footage."
Khalid said that the evidence would be damaged if those without expertise try to access the footage. "The MV Nordlake team said their technical expertise team will arrive in Mumbai by this weekend. Once they are here we will get the copy," he said.
Yellow Gate police station officials said that attempts were being made to gather SVDR footage from INS Vindhyagiri. However, retrieving the data was difficult as the ship had sunk partially.
A nautical advisor to the Director General of Shipping on Thursday visited the MV Nordlake vessel, anchored outside the Mumbai harbour — Bombay Float Light (BFL) Anchorage. "The advisor has asked to submit the available copy of charts and other logs. He checked the data and other contents available," an official said.
Khalid said that the investigation was being conducted on technical expert opinion. "Two important sets of data required to conduct the investigation are chart plots worked manually by the pilot and the captain of the vessel, while plotting the sea route before using the radar, and secondly, the SVDR data," he added.
The police on Thursday recorded the statements of the two ship captains. "They blamed each other. We have asked them to submit enough documents to find out who was at fault," Khalid said.
