MUMBAI: An Esplanade court on Sunday sent the 35 arrested Somali pirates in police custody till April 4. The pirates, captured by the Indian Navy during an anti-piracy operation in the Arabian Sea last week, are accused of attempted murder, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and criminal intimidation among other charges.
The pirates were on Saturday taken to the JJ Hospital for medical examination. Their interrogation about the hijacking of a merchant vessel is on. The pirates had hijacked a Bulgarian merchant vessel, MV Ruen, on December 14 last year, with its 17 crew members in the Arabian Sea. The pirates demanded a ransom of $60 million from the ship’s owner to release the crew and the ship.
Indian Navy’s warship, INS Kolkata, during an anti-piracy operation, warned the hijackers and asked them to surrender. During a long operation, the Navy personnel captured all the pirates and brought them to Mumbai and handed them over to the city police for further action as per the law. Police have seized two boats, three engines, 196 live cartridges, one magazine, a knife among other items.
In 2012, the Navy detained 120 Somali pirates from the Arabian sea after rescuing over 50 crew members of different nationalities from a hijacked ship. The pirates were then arrested in four different cases.
