Sandeep Sinha, the Sindhuratna commander facing court martial-'Scapegoats' to cover battery leak:

'Scapegoats' to cover battery leak: Officers Samyabrata Ray goswami Mumbai, Jan. 30: Sandeep Sinha, the Sindhuratna commander facing court martial, and the others have been made "scapegoats" as the fire was caused by "expired" batteries, officers at the Western Naval Command said today. "These people came back from the jaws of death and now, they are being made the scapegoats as it is too tough for the bureaucrats in the defence ministry to accept that they messed up by forcing the navy to use expired batteries on its subs," said an officer. The inquiry found the seven officers, including Commodore Commanding S.R. Kapoor, guilty of "dereliction of duty". The charge against them: they mistook the first fire alarm for simulated alarms set off by an inspection team on the sub and did not take the alert seriously. The moments lost in the process - though less than a minute according on some accounts - led to the tragedy, said the board of inquiry set up by the navy to investigate the accident. Resentment was high today especially on the court martial ordered against Sinha, 41. "Sinha had commandeered the vessel for nearly two hours after the accident despite inhaling deadly gases that nearly killed him. It (the court martial announcement) has made the atmosphere at the naval command here very tense," said the officer. Sinha had to be put on ventilator later along with some of the other officers who have been indicted by the inquiry. It all began after the battery leak started a fire and poisonous extinguisher fumes filled two compartments of the Sindhuratna. Sinha and some others rushed into Compartment Three of the sub after learning that two officers - Lieutenant Commander Kapish Muwal and Lieutenant Manoranjan Kumar who died in the blaze - were trapped inside. "Sinha had gone in to try to rescue them, not thinking once about of his own safety. But his heroic efforts failed to save the two juniors' lives," said a navy source. Despite taking in the gases and fully aware that they could be fatal, Sinha manned the controls personally and brought the submarine to the surface. He then stood by till every sailor had climbed out and revived themselves. "Sinha insisted he wouldn't leave till every person on board had done so. Then, after ensuring shutdown of the controls, he was the last to go," the source said. Sinha was very ill but still refused to be air-lifted with the first lot of seven critically ill crew members. "He agreed to go only when a ship came after three hours to evacuate 22 more sailors and officers. This worsened his condition," said the source who was on the board of inquiry that probed the accident. Sinha is the son of a retired naval commander of the logistics directorate and the son-in-law of a retired rear admiral from the naval armament inspectorate. The Sindhuratna, a Kilo-class submarine, was on a "Task 2" mission to check whether the refitted vessel was fit to be deployed at sea when the blaze broke out on February 26 last year.