Sailing dreams go sour, eight Indians ‘held’ in Iran

AGRA - Around a year ago, nine Indian young men embarked from Dubai for on-ship training - sailing high on their Merchant Navy dreams. But today, one of them is dead while the others are believed to be in Iranian custody for crude oil smuggling, their families say.

“Initially, I was told that the ship had been seized by a group of pirates.

Subsequently, I was informed that the ship had encroached into Iran waters and has been held up. And also that it was carrying smuggled oil and those present on the ship have been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment,” an emotionally-charged Rajendra Singh Choudhary, father of 20-year-old Bhupendra Singh, who boarded the ship from Dubai through Bin Khadem Marine Services, told IANS on phone.

“But these are bits of information. The embassy should clarify and let us know what exactly has happened. If they are in jail, why no legal help was provided to defend the innocents? The boys had gone for training, they did not know what was going on and they had no idea about the smuggling of oil,” he said, almost on the verge of tears.

The nine men, in their early 20s, hailed from small towns of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Punjab. They initially joined a training course run by the Sea Horse Academy of Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh which put them on a ship for “on-board training” for six-months but they went missing in April.

The parents say their dreams have been shattered.

Choudhary said the external affairs ministry should use diplomatic channels to trace his son.

“The Andhra academy officials kept assuring me till about two months back that they were in touch with the boys, but now they are also untraceable,” Choudhary said.

Hailing from a rural village in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district, Choudhary said he had paid Rs.2 lakh for Bhupendra’s training.

Unconfirmed sources have told Choudhary that all the youngsters charged with smuggling are serving a two years’ sentence in an Iranian jail. There is however no communication from the Indian embassy.

Choudhary said he had written to ministers, embassy officials, the shipping company and human rights organisations, but nobody has bothered to reply or provide any satisfactory information.

A relative of his, Satvir Choudhary, told IANS: “For all we know, they could be languishing in some dark dungeon in most inhuman conditions for no fault of theirs. But we find the attitude of the Indian embassy officials baffling and shocking.”

Meanwhile, in a sad turn of events, news about the death of one of the men surfaced around two months ago.

“They demanded Rs.3 lakh for his body. But I had no money; I couldn’t collect my own son’s body for 45 days. Then one day, I got a call to collect the body from Delhi airport. They (shipping company) said he had died a natural death,” said Bhura Singh, father of the deceased hailing from Aligarh.

Unconfirmed reports, however, said there was a bullet mark at the back of the body. No autopsy report was made available.

(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)