The Indian ship captain, who was sentenced to life by a United Arab Emirates court for murdering a compatriot, may have his sentence reduced after the court receives the letter of pardon from the victim's family.
The failure to get the letter of pardon attested by Maharashtra government, as required, led to the Fujairah Court of First Instance not taking it into cognisance and sentencing Captain Jitendra Malhotra to life. It also sentenced Sumeet Bhola, Maher Gurprit Singh, Moosa Kounge, Pramod Chavan, Skariah Money Mannil and Datta Suman to five years each in jail.
The next of kin of the deceased sailor Sudhir Nonia Jagannath, 31, who died of a head injury during a fight on board, had pardoned the seven men lodged in a Fujairah jail on charges of murder and physical assault, Indian officials attending the trial said.
At the appeals court's first hearing, an attested copy of the pardon letter is likely to be submitted, which may help reduce the sentence to just one year and since they have already served few months in jail, the captain may be released earlier.
Jagannathan, who hails from Mumbai, was beaten to death by his mates on board a Norwegian oil tanker stationed in international waters off the coast of the emirate of Fujairah in Feburary.
The ship, which was coming from New Mangalore port in Karnataka, was to dock at Fujairah port. Fujairah police got involved in the case as the emirate was the nearest coast to the vessel, Champion, which was in international waters.
