Crew kin send SOS to Sonia

The families of missing crew of MV Rezzak, on Monday, demanded a CBI inquiry into the ship’s disappearance. They have written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi too, asking her to look into the matter. The ship went missing in Black Sea, off the Turkish coast on February 18.

“Top leaders at the Centre should do something because we think facts are being deliberately suppressed. We cannot rely on our embassy officials in Ankara, Apartado and Moscow,” said Uma Mohan, sister of the missing ship’s chief engineer Gopal Krishna Menon. A few days ago, she had alleged that the directorate general of shipping was misleading the investigations.

Several among the relatives said everything till date pointed to a fraud. No one from captain B Goswami’s family was, however, present at the meeting. Though the Turkish authorities had sought Interpol’s help in locating the ship, they have now officially called off the search. “It is possible that there is nothing in the sea to search for,” said Mohan. DNA had reported on March 4 that Turkey had informally told Indian shipping officials of a possible maritime fraud.

Mevis Meyers’ husband was among Rezzak’s crew. “We must get them back alive,” she said. A few others talked about the nature of cargo on board the Rezzak.
Another crew Pritam Singh’s cousin Harish Sharma said, “We were officially told that the ship was carrying Russian steel billets worth $3 million. But where is the proof that the ship was not carrying something else? The government needs to find out if customs formalities were cleared before Rezzak left Novorossiysk port in Russia.”