Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi resigns after spate of submarine accidents

Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi resigned on Wednesday in the wake of submarine INS Sindhuratna accident, as per reports.

The Defence Ministry has accepted his resignation. Vice Admiral Robin Dhowan will take over as acting Naval Chief till a regular Naval Chief is appointed. The Navy was today hit by yet another mishap as smoke engulfed Russian-made submarine INS Sindhuratna off the Mumbai coast, causing serious illness to seven sailors and leaving two officers missing. The seven sailors had to be airlifted to a hospital after they inhaled smoke.

An upset Defence Ministry sought a detailed report from the Navy on the mishap, which is the 10th involving an Indian Navy warship and the third submarine mishap in the last seven month after the sinking of INS Sindhurakshak in August in which all 18 personnel on board were killed. INS Sindhurakshak was the second biggest tragedy after the sinking of INS Khukri on the fateful night of December 9, 1971. It sank 40 nautical miles off the coast of Diu after being torpedoed by Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor. The ill-fated ship had 18 officers and 176 sailors on board. Though INS Khukri was lost in war, INS Sindhurakshak, a frontline submarine, sunk at the naval dockyard in Mumbai on Auguts 14 after it was hit by a series of explosions and subsequent fire.