Efforts on for release of Indian ship captain jailed in Togo: Milind Deora

Efforts are on to secure the release of an Indian sailor jailed in Togo whose family eagerly awaits his return for performing the last rites of his 11-month son who died earlier this week, Union Minister of State for Shipping Milind Deora said today.

Captain Sunil James is under arrest in west African country Togo since July on the charge of aiding pirates who had attacked and looted his Marshall Islands-flagged MT Ocean Centurion on July 16. "Efforts are on to secure the release of Captain Sunil James. Legal options are being worked out," the minister said.

The sailor's 31-year-old wife, Aditi and others in the family are desperately waiting for his arrival to conduct the last rites of his son whose body is lying in a hospital morgue since the toddler's death from septicaemia on December 2. "Aditi is devastated. She questions life. She questions fate," James' brother-in-law, Rakesh Madappa said. "We would like to see Sunil back in India, so that he can put his son to rest and give him the burial that he deserves," he said, adding "Does it take the death of an 11-month-old baby for the government to act?" It was reported that the infant, Vivaan, underwent an operation for intestinal gangrene but doctors could not save him as the infection had spread to his bloodstream.