5 Indian Seafarers released from Iranian Jail, returning to India

Chabahar, Mar 24: Five Indian seafarers, who were kept under judicial custody at Iran’s Chabahar Central Jail for 403 days, will return to India on Friday, March 24. The seafarers were in judicial custody without any charges till the investigations were completed with the authorities in Chabahar, Konark, Sistan, and Baluchestan provinces in Iran.

 

 

 

The cost of repatriation of the seafarers is being borne by the Government of India and facilitated by Indian World Forum. Following the directions of the Delhi High Court to the Centre, the Indian Embassy in Tehran provided them boarding and lodging, before the government stepped in, the five were at the mercy of local good samaritans.

 

 

 

The Delhi High Court had in 2022 sought the Centre's response to the plea seeking the repatriation of five Indian seafarers stranded in Iran after their acquittal in a criminal case there. Following the petition that the fathers of the five seafarers filed, Justice Rekha Palli granted time to the Central Government's legal counsel to get instructions. In February 2020, the vessel where the Indian seafarers were working was raided by the Iranian authorities, and the five seafarers were arrested for allegedly conspiring to smuggle narcotics into the deep sea. They were acquitted in March 2021. The five stranded Indian seafarers recorded a video message on July 10, 2021, seeking justice and requesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervene in the matter.

 

Also Read: China helps restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran 

 

The five seafarers are Aniket Yenpure (Mumbai in Maharashtra), Mandar Worlikar (Mumbai), Naveen Singh (Bageshwar in Uttarakhand), Pranav Kumar (Saran in Bihar) and Thamizhselvan Rengsamy (Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu).