Mumbai: Trio in Kuwaiti boat intercepted by coastal police, Navy claims it caught them

The police said they were professional fishermen and had started from Kuwait on January 28.

MUMBAI: Three persons from Kanyakumari were apprehended in a Kuwaiti fishing trawler on Tuesday morning by the crew of Chaitrali, a patrol boat of the Yellow Gate police station. They were stopped by the coastal police at Prongs Lighthouse, about four nautical miles from the Gateway of India, and taken to Colaba police station.

Mumbai, India - Feb. 6, 2024: Unidentified vessel entred in Indian water at Gateway Of India, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, February 6, 2024. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Sanjay Latkar, DCP, Port Zone, said, “The men claimed they were from Kanyakumari and worked for a company in Kuwait. They decided to run away from there as they were neither paid for two years nor given food regularly. Their passports too were confiscated by their employers. They navigated their way to Mumbai with the help of a GPS device, and took ten days to reach our shores. Our crew checked them and handed them over to the Colaba police.” The trio claimed they were checked twice en route to Mumbai, added Latkar.

The three have been identified as Nitso Ditto, 31, J Sayyantha Anish, 32, and Enfant Vijay Vinay Anthony, 32. The police said they were professional fishermen and had started from Kuwait on January 28.

“We are questioning them,” said a Colaba police officer. “They could not give us proper answers since they speak neither English nor Hindi properly. We are yet to decide whether we need to take any action against them. But they are actually victims even though their way of re-entering the country was illegal.”

The Kuwaiti vessel, 30 meter long, coming undetected to Mumbai is a big lapse on the part of the Navy and Coast Guard, which regularly patrol the seas with aircraft, helicopters and sea vessels. Naval sources claimed that they had first stopped the vessel at Prongs Lighthouse and then alerted the police. However, DCP Latkar said it was the police who had stopped the vessel and alerted the Navy.

When questioned, the naval spokesperson refused to accept that there was a lapse on the Navy’s part. “Let the police conduct an investigation,” he said. K Suresh, additional director-general of the Coast Guard West, and inspector-general Bhisham Sharma did not take calls.

The defence forces have always claimed that they scan the seas thoroughly with their aerial patrol and sea vessels especially after the terror attack of 26/11. However, on Wednesday, they were unable to say how this vessel could come so close to Mumbai from Kuwait without prior detection. Last year too a yacht loaded with arms, damaged due to inclement weather, was found off Raigad district.