The Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested three men, originally from Tamil Nadu, for entering India illegally using a fishing boat in which they sailed from Kuwait in a bid to escape from that country, an incident that raised concerns over potential maritime lapses.
The boat was spotted off the Mumbai coast during patrolling on Tuesday morning, a police official said.In the probe conducted so far, the police found that the trio were fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who had been working in Kuwait since the last two years.
Allegedly ill-treated by their agent, the trio set sail on a fishing boat of their master without permission to escape from the Gulf country and entered the Indian territory illegally, he said.
The arrested persons were identified as Infant Vijay Vinod Anthony, Sahaya Antony Anish – both aged 29 and residents of Kanyakumari- and Nidiso Dito (31) from Ramnathpuram in Tamil Nadu, the official said.
A local court here remanded them to police custody till February 10. The incident has raised concerns over maritime security as 10 Pakistani terrorists had arrived by the sea route before launching a terror strike in the metropolis in November 2008.
The 26/11 terror attacks had claimed the lives of 166 individuals and left hundreds of people injured. “A suspicious boat was spotted by the officials of the Yellow Gate police station around 7.30 am on Tuesday when they were on patrolling duty in the Arabian Sea. The boat, which was of a different make, was found moving near the Sassoon Dock, following which the police patrolling boat went closer and found three persons aboard,” the FIR said.
The three persons were neither able to speak Marathi nor Hindi. They were speaking broken English, due to which the suspicion surrounding them grew, it said. The police patrolling team then informed the South Region control room and sought assistance, following which two police boats and another from the Navy arrived at the spot, the FIR said.
The three persons then stopped the boat. The police asked them to go along for an inquiry, but they did not start the boat, following which it was towed to the Gateway of India, the official said.
During the inquiry it came to light that the three of them were fishermen and the fishing boat in which they sailed was owned by their master Abdullah Sharahit in Kuwait, he added.
The FIR said they took the fishing boat from Kuwait without permission, crossed the international borders and entered Indian territory illegally without passports.
The city police formally placed them under arrest on Wednesday, The boat with the trio on board was anchored at the Gateway of India on Tuesday.
Prima facie, nothing suspicious was found on the boat, he said.
A case was registered against them by the Colaba police here, the official said.
“The police arrested them after filing a case under section 3 (a) with penal section 6 (a) of the Passport (Entry into India) Rules for not following the due procedures required for entering India,” he added.
A complaint was filed at the Colaba police station by a 34-year-old police constable of the Yellow Gate police station.
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