9 yrs after murder of captain on the Atlantic,2 get life

On the first day of his ninth grade,13-year-old Tejasvi Agarwal learnt that his father — Rajan Agarwal,the captain of a ship sailing from Argentina to Egypt — had gone missing mid-Atlantic. News of his murder followed within a week. Two Indian cadets were arrested and then released on bail. While the case remained in procedural limbo,the accused married,had children and led a life. Nine years after a prolonged investigation and court battle,Tejasvi’s prayers were answered on Wednesday. A city court sentenced the cadets to life imprisonment.

The prosecution’s case runs thus: On April 4,2004,Captain Rajan had reprimanded two trainee cadets — Vivek Madokh and Shankar Bhatia — for neglecting their duties. He also took them to task for not completing their homework. Enraged,the duo attacked him,first with a whiskey bottle,then with a metal detector,and again with a stool. As the Captain lay bleeding,he was wrapped in a bedsheet,dragged to the deck and then thrown overboard. The prosecution also claimed he was strangled,but this was never proved.

The details of the murder recounted in detail in the court’s order is something that Tejasvi has to live with every day. “Every time I read the court’s order,I am reminded of what these two did and how they ruined our life,” he said.

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After his father’s death,Tejasvi’s family was forced into a life of financial hardship. With his brother away,his mother started a small bakery business. Tejasvi helped out whenever he could. “My childhood was crushed. “His body was never recovered,” he said.

The court convicted the duo for the murder of Agarwal and destruction of evidence on September 6. The court said the Indian police had fabricated evidence. This,in turn,allowed the defence to claim that a false case had been registered against the accused.

Discarding the evidence produced by the Indian investigators,Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma relied upon the investigation by the Spanish police in April 2004 based on strong forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene.