The NIA special court in Kochi on Friday remanded the 12-member crew of an Iranian vessel impounded off the Alappuzha coast last month in judicial custody till August 13.
They were produced in the court based on a production warrant issued earlier this week and lodged at the district jail at Kakkanand.
They have been booked under Sections 3, 7 of the Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by Foreign Vessels) Act, 1981, and Section 3(G) of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act.
During the hearing, two of the arrested, Shahzad Baloch and Quasim Baloch, deposed that they had entered the Indian territorial waters after their boat developed a technical snag. They also requested the court to allow them contact their family members.
On a directive from the court, they gave a written request in Hindi, which was later translated to English.
The request in Hindi surprised the investigators, who said they would also look into how they learned the language and whether they had been to India before. “They can speak and write Hindi fluently, though it is not a commonly used language in Iran and Pakistan,” officials said.
Of the 12, five persons, Abdul Qadin Baloch, Pesuz Baloch, Zahid Baloch, Wahid Baloch, and Ihalim Bakshi Baloch, are believed to be from Pakistan while Abdul Majeed Baloch, Shahzad Baloch, Hussein Baloch, Jamshad Baloch, Mohammed Baloch, Ahmad Baloch, and Quasim Baloch hail from Iran.Having brought the crew to Kochi, the NIA is now planning to tow their vessel, Barooki, docked at Vizhinjam, to Kochi. The agency plans to seek the help of the Coast Guard for the same. The alleged laxity of the police in not using high-security vehicles for transporting the arrested will be looked into by the special branch. Official sources said the police brought them to Kochi by train on Friday morning and shifted them to the district Jail from the Tripunithura railway station in a police vehicle.
