8 crew members booked for murder

AHMEDABAD: The Ahmedabad zonal unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) filed a complaint with Navi Bandar Marine police station of Porbandar district on Thursday against eight crew members of 'Henry' ship for murder of two persons - a Pakistani national and an Iranian national - aboard the vessel and dumping their bodies in sea. The investigation would be carried out by PG Patel, superintendent of police, Porbandar Rural.
Indian Coast Guard (ICG) had intercepted the ship 150 nautical miles off the Indian coast after midnight on July 30. The ship was laden with 1500 kg high quality heroin worth nearly US$ 1 billion in the international drug market. The investigation was taken over by NCB after which eight crew members Mohnish Kumar, Manish Patel, Sanjay Yadav, Divyesh Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Vinay Yadav and Anurag Sharma along with captain Suprit Tiwari were arrested under NDPS Act.
A senior NCB official said that during questioning of the crew members, it had come to light that two of the drug handlers were bumped off when it was decided that the ship would be steered towards India instead of Egypt. After the statements were taken on record and tabled in court, it was decided to file a separate complaint of murders. It took about three months to decide whether NCB would club it with ongoing investigation. However, NCB officials said that they can only investigate in purview of NDPS Act and the murders should be probed by the local police under provisions of IPC.
The offense was lodged by NCB officer Rakesh Dataniya with Navi Bandar marine police station on November 2 and the eight crew members have been booked under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120b (criminal conspiracy).
Those murdered were Khalid Mohammad Husain, a Pakistani national and Mojtab Sarkohi alias Mustafa of Iran. The incident took place between July 24 and July 26 somewhere between Gwadar port in Pakistan and Red Sea in the international waters.
As per the complaint, Khalid had attacked Dinesh Yadav with a knife in which the latter suffered injuries on head and back. Soon after, the crew members attacked Khalid and had tied his hands. Mustafa, who tried to save him when he was pushed off the ship, was also dumped in the sea after tying him with a motor.