MUMBAI: Over four months after being released from a prison in Iran after being found innocent in a narcotics case, five Indian sailors, including two from the city, continue to languish there as their passports have reportedly been withheld. The five, who were arrested after the Iranian navy intercepted their ship and seized 1.5 tonnes of morphine, have spent over a year in Chabahar central jail.
While Aniket Yenpure (28), a deck cadet, and his cousin Mandar Worlikar (26) are from Mumbai, other crew members include Patna resident Pranav Tiwari (21), Naveen Singh (23) from New Delhi, and Thamizh Selvan (31) from Chennai. They have sought assistance from the Indian authorities for their repatriation.
Aniket’s father Sham, a milk deliveryman from Worli, has been making every effort to secure the release of his son and nephew. Sham has even written to PM Narendra Modi and the ministry of external affairs for help. He says the Indian embassy in Iran has not come to their aid. “We are trying to bring them back. There are problems from India in sending money for their repatriation due to sanctions. We are trying to find a way out,” Director-General of Shipping Amitabh Kumar told TOI.
Sham says all the youngsters hail from lower middle-class families and had taken huge loans to pay agents to get the jobs on ‘MV Artin10’, owned by an Iranian, Razaee Mukkadam. “It was Aniket’s first job on board a merchant ship. I had taken loans and even mortgaged my late wife’s gold to secure this job for him,” Sham told TOI.
Recalling the turbulent turn of events, Sham said his son and the others were supposed to sign off from the ship in January 2020, when the ship’s master, Captain M Rasool Gharebi, informed them about a change in plan. The captain is said to have informed them they would be heading towards Oman to load cement bags and then to Kuwait to offload the cargo. “On the midnight of February 20, 2020, they were around 140km away from Muscat when the captain ordered the ship to drop anchor. Aniket said he noticed bags being loaded from another vessel. They were told it was rice,” said Sham.
The next morning, while they were on the high seas, the Iranian navy intercepted the vessel and arrested them. “The navy seized 1.5 tonnes of morphine. The ship’s captain admitted before officials that the Indians were innocent and they had no clue about the contents of the cargo,” said Sham. He says the investigation lasted over a year. “On March 9, the Chabahar court found my son and the others innocent and ordered their release,” Sham said.
