Mumbai (IANS) | Five Indian seafarers, stranded in Iran since June 2019, finally returned home on Friday afternoon after nearly four years.
These five are — Mumbai resident Aniket S. Yenpure (31) and Mandar M. Worlikar (28), Pranav A. of Patna. Tiwari (23), Naveen M. Singh of Delhi and Thamizh R. of Chennai. Selvan (33). He reached Mumbai by Iran Air in the afternoon. His relatives welcomed him with hugs, kisses and lifted him into the air. During this everyone’s eyes were moist.
Yenpure said, “Our happiness is limitless… We were away from our families and separated for almost 45 months, but the nightmare is over now.” For the next one month we will rest and talk to all our family members.
He expressed his gratitude to the Indian Embassy in Tehran which arranged for his emergency travel papers and tickets till Mumbai and also thanked some Iranian lawyers for ensuring his smooth return home.
However, their passports and CDC were not handed over, and now the five youths plan to apply for new passports, said Worlikar.
For the time being, Tiwari, Singh and Selvan will stay with their friends Yenpure and Worlikar until they can arrange money from their families to return to their respective hometowns.
His plight was first reported by IANS (July 4, 2021) on how he was deep sea sailing near Oman in February 2020, but unwittingly got caught in a drug smuggling racket, which was allegedly started by was executed by the captain of his ship.
Yenpure’s father Sham Yenpure said- For this, he was arrested, put in jail and made to wander in different cities of Iran. They kept fighting legal battles, kept hiding and also kept doing odd jobs. During this time they survived on food and clothing provided by sympathetic villagers in remote areas.
Taking out a foot march to Shri Saibaba Temple in Shirdi, milkman Yenpure said in emotional words – We have Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S.K. Jaishankar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, his former minister son Aaditya Thackeray, Iranian diplomats in India and Indian diplomats in Iran, top Iranian leaders and others were approached for help.
Initially, all was well for the five youths, but on February 20, 2020, they unknowingly got caught in the dreaded net of their ship’s captain in the deep sea, about 140 km from Muscat. Sensing something amiss with the illegal mid-sea cargo transfer, Worlikar and his co-crew quietly recorded it on their mobile phones – using it as evidence for customs and Iran police officers at the next port Did.
Unexpectedly, the next morning (February 21, 2020), an Iran Navy ship was intercepted in the open sea, arrested all of them, and transferred them to the Navy ship. As events unfolded after February 2020, little did they realize that not only would their dreams be shattered, but they would also be imprisoned and kept away from their families for almost four years.
Five youths were offloaded from a naval ship, then arrested by the Counter-Narcotics Department, sent to police custody, spent over 55 weeks in jail, but were later found innocent on March 8, 2021, and a trial court ordered his release.
Amazingly, they were arrested again and produced before a high court, which again ordered their release, but impounded all their travel and other documents—making the five youths incarcerated from March 10, 2021. Got stuck there.
Meanwhile, the case continued in various courts including the Iran Supreme Court, they were given all help by local lawyers and the Indian Embassy and various consulates in Iran. Finally, after nearly four years away from home, the Indian Embassy in Tehran arranged their tickets and paved the way for their return home.
–IANS
