Coast Guard brings detained Iranian fishing boat with six Tamil crew members to Kochi

Iranian fishing vessel detained off Kerala coast with Indian crew, highlighting maritime security challenges faced by law enforcement agencies.

The Coast Guard detained an Iranian fishing vessel with six fishermen from Kanyakumari on board west of Beypore in north Kerala on Sunday. The vessel was subsequently brought to Kochi and the fishermen, namely Kavishkumar, 24, Nithyathayalan, 31, Mariyatenil, 38, Muneeshwaran 37, Arunthayalan, 28, and Rajendran, 36, were handed over to the Coastal Police at Fort Kochi.  

According to the Coast Guard, the boat was owned by an Iranian sponsor named Syed Saud Ansari. He had contracted the Indian fishermen by issuing them Iranian visas for fishing off the coast of Iran in his boat since March 26, 2023. The fishermen alleged that the sponsor had ill-treated them and had not provided them basic living conditions. They also said that their passports were all taken away by him. This forced them to escape from Iran to India using the same boat.  

But when the Coast Guard intercepted the boat in a coordinated air-sea operation, the crew members were in distress, without food and other essential supplies. They were provided relief. The crew told the Coastal Police that they had left Iran on April 22 and reached the coast of Kerala late on Sunday.  

They were interrogated by various security agencies before being handed over to the Coastal Police. According to a source, the fishermen said they had left India on valid visa but were without their passports now after they were confiscated by their sponsor.

The legal process, said an official, involved producing them for immigration clearance to record their entry to India. They would also be subjected to a medical examination.  

The Coast Guard said the detention of the foreign fishing boat with Indian crew highlighted the complexities of maritime security and the challenges being faced by any maritime law enforcement agency in preventing illegal activities at sea. “This incident underscores the Indian Coast Guard’s ongoing efforts to safeguard India’s maritime borders and maintain law and order in maritime zones of India,” it said.  

The Coast Guard maintained a high level of security during the operation. The boat was boarded by the Coast Guard boarding team which checked if it was involved in any anti-national activity.