Key Bridge case: Dali’s chief engineer enters deferred prosecution agreement

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal charge Monday against the chief engineer of the ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, but said in a court filing that he had entered a deferred prosecution agreement.

Karthikeyan Deenadayalan, who attorneys said had invoked the Fifth Amendment for most of his civil deposition, was charged with one violation of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act. Prosecutors accused him in the criminal information of failing to notify the Coast Guard of a flushing pump arrangement on board the Dali that investigators have said led to the cargo ship’s loss of power on March 26, 2024. The ship lost steering and propulsion due to the blackout and slammed into the Key Bridge, downing the span and killing six.

Deenadayalan is the second employee of the shipowners to face criminal charges. Synergy Marine Group shoreside technical superintendent Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair was charged last month in the original indictment; Synergy itself is also a defendant.

Deenadayalan’s attorney, Gregg L. Bernstein of Zuckerman Spaeder, declined to comment.

In a Monday correspondence with U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar, the attorney prosecuting the criminal cases said that Deenadayalan and the government had “entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement” for the matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew P. Phelps requested in the letter that the agreement “be entered at a public hearing,” allowing victims to be present.

The agreement itself had not been filed on the public docket as of Monday evening.

The criminal case against Synergy and Nair is set for a hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Maryland. The civil proceedings were originally set to be held throughout June but were paused at the last minute following a flurry of settlements.