Navy submarine tragedy: Four among 18 missing sailors from Kerala

Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod

Kasargod, Aug 16: Four of the 18 sailors who were trapped and are feared dead in the submarine tragedy that took place in Mumbai two days ago are from Kerala, it is learnt.

They are lieutenant commander R Venkitaraj and Liju Lawrence from Thiruvananthapuram, Vikas from Talacherry, Kannur and Vishnu from Alleppey.

Liju Lawrence, Vishnu and Vikas

In the worst peacetime disaster to have struck the Navy, a series of blasts had rocked INS Sindhurakshak submarine, which caught fire and sank at Mumbai dockyard early Wednesday August 14. Bodies of five of the 18 sailors were recovered on Friday August 16, but as they were burnt and disfigured beyond recognition, the identities could not be established.

Among the four sailors from Kerala, Vikas (23) hails from Talacherry in Kannur district. He is the son of Krishnadas and Vatsala, and has a brother by name Ramesh Babu. Vikas had earlier worked in Kochi and Vishakapatnam.

Vishnu (21) from Haripad, Alleppey is the son of Vishwambharan. He had joined INS submarine about two years back.

Nothing much is known about Liju Lawrence (29) and lieutenant commander R Venkitaraj (35).

The families of all four have gone to Mumbai. There is no information whether they are alive, although sources said that survival would be unlikely.

The three officers on board are lieutenant commanders Nikhilesh Pal, Alok Kumar and R Venkitaraj. The sailors stuck inside the 2,300-tonne kilo class vessel are Sanjeev Kumar, KC Upadhya, Timothy Sinha, Kewal Singh, Sunil Kumar Dasari Prasad, Liju Lawrence, Rajesh Tootika, Amit K Singh, Atul Sharma, Vikas E Naruttam Deuri, Malay Haldar, Vishnu V and Seetaram Badapalli.

Eight of these 15 personnel, including two officers, were married.

The divers' rescue efforts are seriously hampered by poor visibility conditions inside the submarine which is filled with water, extremely restricted spaces and displacement of most of the equipment from their original locations.

The heat of the explosion had melted parts of the internal hull deforming the submarine hatches, preventing access to different compartments.

Heavy duty pumps have been deployed to pump out the seawater from the sunken submarine.

The cause of the explosions and a raging fire - to which the submarine succumbed within six hours and sank - is still not clear nearly three days after the incident.

With Agency Inputs