About four years since seven Indian sailors were taken hostage by Somali pirates after their merchant ships were hijacked, separate affidavits filed by the Ministry of External Affairs in the Supreme Court are narratives of a trail of inconclusive efforts made with the African nation to trace them.
The uncertainty over the fate of the Indian nationals led a Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Adarsh Kumar Goel to ask the government about the steps taken to find the seven crew members of MV Asphalt Venture, a Panama-flagged vessel, which was hijacked on September 29, 2010.
The last the government heard of T.B. Unnikrishnan, George Joseph, Sohan Singh, Bahadur Singh, Bhim Singh, Daniston and Manjit Singh was they were held captive in an undisclosed location in Somalia.
A photograph of them taken in captivity in January last year is all relatives have of them. Their families’ counsel in the Supreme Court, Gaurav Kumar Bansal, said the photo was taken in January 2013.
“What is being done now?” asked Justice Goel expressing concern on Friday.
The government counsel replied that it had been a “tough task” but “continued efforts are still on” to track the sailors.
Mr. Bansal, however, accused the government of “slacking.”
The Bench had reserved the case for final orders.
Affidavits filed in June 2014 show negotiations with Somalia to get “conclusive information” on the sailors’ whereabouts are inconclusive. Especially in the case of Dheeraj Tiwari, first officer of MV Iceberg, a Panama-flagged vessel hijacked off the Gulf of Aden on March 29, 2010.
Mr. Tiwari’s whereabouts remain a mystery despite a Yellow Notice issued through the Interpol. Efforts through U.N. bodies and maritime NGOs haven’t seen a breakthrough. His three shipmates, rescued by the Puntland Maritime Protection Force in December 2012, say he went missing shortly after the hijacking.
The Ministry said the Indian High Commission in Nairobi had appealed to the President of the Puntland State of Somalia on October 14 last year and met the President in January 2014 for information on the sailors.
