Taking into cognisance a chargesheet filed by the police in the death of Inderjeet Singh Oberoi in the seas near Senegal, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M C Gupta ordered the accused — Ranvijay Singh Rana (captain), R Ramanujam (chief engineer) and Ajay B Naik (second engineer) of the then Mumbai-based Fleet Transport Company — to appear on May 12.

An FIR was registered on February, 2005 at the Tilak Nagar Police Station following the death of a mechanical engineer. The case was later handed over to the Crime Branch.

Oberoi had died on board M V Bonita Light, a ship owned by Golden Carriers Limited, Panama, on the night of January 13-14, 2000, allegedly due to suffocation after a fire in the engine room during his duty as fourth engineer at the vessel, about 22 nautical miles away from Dakar port in Senegal.

In the chargesheet, the police said Rana was responsible for not taking photographs of the deceased and the accident spot, and for burying Oberoi without taking his parents’ consent.

Rana was also accused of not performing any autopsy and not informing either the Indian Mission or the local government about the incident or even a doctor to confirm Oberoi’s death.