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. 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.

Source: The Nation July 10, 2021 06:56 UTC