Boats spotted in prohibited areas near ONGC oil rigs; probe initiated

The complainant, Kishore Kharat – a senior ONGC foreman – told the police in two separate incidents on September 12 and September 27 that two boats were spotted in the Mumbai High area platform, also known as SHP.

Mumbai: A case has been registered after the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) complained about a suspicious boat that was spotted in prohibited areas around their oil rigs in the Mumbai High area in the Arabian Sea. It has India’s largest crude oil and natural gas deposits. The police have initiated a probe into the matter.

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The complainant, Kishore Kharat – a senior ONGC foreman – told the police in two separate incidents on September 12 and September 27 that two boats were spotted in the Mumbai High area platform, also known as SHP.

“In the first incident of September 12, a suspicious fishing trawler was seen in the vicinity of Sagar Samrat platform, which is around 21.4 nautical miles (39.6kilometres) from the SHP main platform,” said a police officer from Yellow Gate police station.

He added that the SHP platform is located around 83 miles (133.6 kilometres) West of Mumbai in the Arabian Sea.

“The second incident took place on September 27, another fishing boat was noticed in the prohibited area around ICW Platform, which is 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 kilometres) from SHP platform. The boat had the words ‘Jay Malhar Sairaj’ written on it,” added the officer.

“As the areas are prohibited, they lodged a complaint with us for illegal trespass. One of the boats is found to be registered in Uran in the Raigad district and we are in the process to trace the people connected with the boat,” he added.

Sarala Vasave, senior police inspector of Yellow Gate police station, confirmed that a case has been registered under section 120 of the Bombay Police Act, 1951 for wilful trespass against unknown people.