A mysterious foreign fishing vessel speeding into the Arabian Sea towards the Mumbai coast caused panic until the Mumbai Police patrol boats intercepted the suspect vessel late Tuesday morning and escorted it to Gateway of India.
The Arab fishing vessel was identified as Abdullah Sharafat with three Indians from Tamil Nadu on board. The men have been identified as Infant Vijay Vinod Antony (29), Nidiso Dito (31) and J. Sahaya Antony Anish Jainsh (29). The trio had escaped Kuwait after their employer, Abdullah Mohammad Abdul Rahman Al Sarhid, forcibly took their passports and refused them payments for two years.
As per their statement to Mumbai police, the men were subjected to ill-treatment and assault by their employer and planned to escape Kuwait after they were unable to bear the harassment and abuse anymore. Ten days after leaving Kuwait and passing through Saudi, Qatar and Dubai borders, the trio reached Mumbai using GPS navigation.
The sighting of foreign flag fishing vessel in Indian waters had caused a scare in the defense establishment recalling horrors of the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks by 10 heavily armed Pakistani terrorist hijacking fishing vessel to enter Mumbai for three days of carnage.
The Arab fishing vessel sporting long thin hulls are common in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean Region but rarely venture far out to the west coast of India.
“We questioned the three crew on boats the fishing trawlers and verified their credentials with the Tamil Nadu police. Their identities have been confirmed and further investigations are in progress,” confirmed a senior Mumbai Police official.
A joint team of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and the Coastal Police will join the Mumbai Police to question the three Indian crew further and inspect the detained fishing vessel.
