Seven members of X-Press Pearl’s local agency arrested by CID granted bail

UPDATE: All 7 members from the local shipping agency representing MV X-Press Pearl, who were arrested by the CID this morning, have been granted surety bail.

They were produced before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.

Seven members from the local shipping agency which represents the fire-wrecked cargo ship MV X-Press Pearl have been taken into custody.

These suspects, arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), will be produced before the court later.

In mid-June, Arjuna Hettiarachchi, the chairman of the said agency – Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd – was also placed under arrest. He was charged under the Marine Pollution Protection Act.

During the investigations, the CID had uncovered that the local agent had deleted several e-mails exchanged with the vessel’s captain that are vital to the investigations.

Accordingly, it was determined that the local agency had acted with negligence with regard to the incident.

Sri Lanka is witnessing what has been considered as one of the worst marine environmental disasters after the Singapore-registered vessel carrying a large number of toxic chemicals and plastic granules caught fire some 16 kilometres off the coast of Colombo on 20 May.

The fire that continued for 12 days resulted in a massive spillage of damaged containers, microplastics, plastic pellets, chemicals and other harmful substances into the sea.

Following the incident, fishing activities were banned on a 50-kilometre stretch of coastline in Colombo and Gampaha, affecting over 16,000 fishing communities in six coastal districts.