Kasargod men held captive by pirates return home safely
Bellevision Media Network
Kasargod, 01 Aug 2013: It was a happy reunion for Vasanth Kumar of Totattil in Melparamba and VK Babu of Uduma Palakunni with their families.
The two who along with 24 others on board MV Cotton, a Maltese flagged chemical tanker which was seized by the pirates off the coast of Gabon to get the oil in the vessel, had been set free and returned to their respective home on July 31, Wednesday.
Vasanth Kumar with family
All the 24 crew on board the vessel who were released, returned to Dubai and from there the two arrived in Mangalore. It was 2 am in the morning when Vasanth Kumar reached his wife’s house at Adkattabail, while Babu reached his house at 3 am.
Both said they were immensely pleased to return home and the prayers of their family members, friends and people of their villages have helped in their release.
The ship was taken captive on July 17 by pirates at gun point and was later taken to Bridge House, Babu recalled. The pirates had seized our mobile phones, cash, jewellery and even threw away the CCTV camera and hard disk in the vessel to the sea, he said. The satellite phone too was destroyed.
They stole the oil in the vessel and removed its name board and replaced it by a name called Arami, he said adding the vessel was then diverted towards Nigeria coast by the pirates before fleeing.
The ship crew included people from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Kolkata, Odisha and Goa, the two said.