Chairman of X-Press Pearl’s local agency arrested
June 16, 2021 01:54 pm
The chairman of the local shipping agency representing the ill-fated ‘X-Press Pearl’ vessel has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Police Media Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said Chairman of Sea Consortium Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Arjuna Hettiarachchi will be produced before the Colombo High Court today (June 16).
Hettiarachchi is charged under the Marine Pollution Protection Act, the DIG said.
Investigations carried out by the CID with regard to the ‘X-Press Pearl’ incident had recently revealed that the local agent had deleted several e-mails exchanged with the vessel’s captain that are vital to the investigations.
Accordingly, it had been determined that the local agency had acted with negligence with regard to the incident, the Police Spokesman said.
Further investigations into the incident are underway.
