KOCHI: The owners of the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie, which was involved in the killing of two Indian fishermen off Neendakara coast, approached the Supreme Court challenging the Kerala High Court’s order asking them to approach the Magistrate Court in Kollam to seek the release of the vessel. The Kerala High Court had set aside a single judge’s direction to release the Italian ship detained in Kochi since February 15. The court also directed the owners of the ship, ‘Dolphin Tankers’, to approach the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kollam with an application to release the vessel within a week.V J Mathew, counsel for Dolphin Tankers, said the main ground in the petition before the apex court is that the writ appeal filed by a third person challenging the High Court Single Bench’s order itself was not maintainable as the appeal was not filed by a party in the case.“The state government’s order to seize the vessel was issued on March 26, while a petition to release the vessel was pending before the High Court,” Mathew said. He also added that the appeal is likely to be considered by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.On March 26, investigating officials had filed a seizure report before the court. However, Single Judge had ordered the release of the vessel for a bond for `3 crore and on condition that they would appear before investigating authorities as and when required.However, the Division Bench had set aside the release of the vessel on an appeal filed by the family members of the two fishermen.
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