Like a ghost it rode the waves and slipped past supposedly tight coastal security and berthed where it had no berth to be. Now tilted at an angle not convincing to onlookers and salvagers alike, was MT Pavit really empty?
Like a ghost it rode the waves and slipped past supposedly tight coastal security and berthed where it had no berth to be. Now tilted at an angle not convincing to onlookers and salvagers alike, was MT Pavit really empty?
There appears to be more than meets the eyes. And if two pairs of eyes are to be believed, then there was something bad afoot the ship, another major security concern.
According to statements given by two fishermen, soon after MV Pavit came aground at Juhu beach last Saturday night, they saw six men in black moving around the boat in a rubber dinghy.
The fishermen, residents of Versova village, were on their way out to sea in their boat in the wee hours of Sunday, when they spotted the six men in black moving around the stranded like a whale MT Pavit.
The two - Subhash Kalthe, 58, and Atish Hegde, 25 -told the police that when they pointed their torchlight in the direction of the ship, the six in the rubber dingy, were in a hurry to get the hell away from the ship. Within minutes, the rubber dinghy was speeding in the direction of Madh Island.
Did 6 suspicious men leave MV Pavit minutes after it ran aground...?
"When they reached the Kileshwar temple, they gutted the rubber dingy with a knife and sunk it and fled inland,” Kalthe and Hegde told the Versova police in a statement they gave around 10am on Sunday morning.
“Based on the information given by the two fishermen, a team of 50 policemen were sent on a combing operation on Sunday night. The team scanned the entire area of Versova Village, Mora Goan, Madh Islands and other neighbouring areas. However, we did not find anyone. The operation was called off on Monday morning” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
He said the police also searched the shores of Madh Island where the rubber dingy was sunk by the six unidentified men. Kalthe’s nephew told DNA the police took Kalathe and Hegde away with them during the search operation.
“For four days both the fishermen have not been able to go out to sea and have been co-operating with the police,” he said.
Three days later, after thorough investigations, the police claim there was nothing to the fishermen’s account. “The two fishermen did inform us about the suspicious men, but when we investigated we found out that the two might have seen a team of police officers who were on patrol duty,” deputy commissioner of police, Pratap Dighavkar, (Zone IX), said.
Asked about the frantic combing operations conducted by the police, Dighavkar refused to divulge details.
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