The Directorate-General of Shipping has begun investigating the possibility that the MV Rezzak, a Panama-registered vessel that went missing in the Black Sea with 25 Indian sailors last week, could have been overloaded with expensive cargo.

The ship was carrying steel billets from Russia to Turkey and was reported missing on February 18 when it was about 120 nautical miles (over 220 km) from the Turkish coast. Maritime agencies have since been looking for it, but have not found any bodies or wreckage barring a lone life raft and some buoys.

“There is a suspicion about the possibility of overloading. The ship was also small by international standards,” P H Krishnan, deputy director-general of shipping, told The Indian Express on Thursday.

Pelican Marine Pvt Ltd, the Mumbai-based firm, which supplied the crew to the ship, would also have to furnish details of the worth of the cargo as “we cannot overlook the factor that it was carrying very expensive cargo,” he said.

Although the 25 men were feared dead and the Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre (MRCC) in Turkey resumed its search for Rezzak and its crew this week only under pressure from New Delhi, Krishnan and other officials insisted it was “missing” and not “sunk”. “We have to wait for the MRCC report before we conclude anything,” Krishnan said.

While a top Government marine official said on Wednesday that MV Rezzak was old and well past its sea life, Krishnan said the vessel had not sailed to India in the last one year and so they had no records of its sea-worthiness. “It’s an old ship. We will check facts on its maintenance and sea worthiness,” he said.

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