Kasargod men held captive by pirates return home safely

Mangalore Today News Network

 Kasargod, Aug 1, 2013: It was a happy reunion  for Vasanth Kumar of Totattil  in Melparamba and VK Babu of Uduma Palakunni with their families.

The two who  along with  24 others on board  MV Cotton, a Maltese flagged chemical tanker  which was seized by the pirates  off the coast of Gabon  to get the oil in the vessel, had been set free  and  returned to their respective  home on July 31, Wednesday.

 

All the 24 crew on board the vessel who were released,  returned to Dubai and from there the two arrived in Mangalore. It was 2 am in the morning  when Vasanth Kumar reached his wife’s house at Adkattabail, while  Babu reached his house at 3 am.

Both said they were immensely pleased to return home and  the prayers of their family members, friends and  people of their villages have helped in their release.

 The ship was taken captive on July 17  by pirates at gun point and  was later taken to Bridge House, Babu recalled. The pirates had seized our mobile phones, cash, jewellery and even threw  away the CCTV camera and hard disk in the vessel to the sea, he said. The satellite phone too was destroyed.

They stole the oil in the vessel and removed its name board and replaced it by a name called Arami, he said adding the vessel was then diverted towards Nigeria coast by the pirates before fleeing.

The ship crew included people from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Kolkata, Odisha and Goa, the two said.