Rajkot The Indian Navy has ordered an inquiry into last week’s incident some 90 nautical miles south off the Diu coast where 40 men onboard six fishing vessels were beaten up and their fishing licences and IDs were seized allegedly by personnel of the Offshore Defence Advisory Group (ODAG). Some of the injured fishermen had to be admitted to hospitals.
The ODAG comprising personnel from the Navy, Coast Guard and the intelligence units were patrolling the area on a tug owned by public sector undertaking Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Madhulika Burman, in-charge corporate communication ONGC (Mumbai) said Samudrika-lll was leased to ODAG.
Elsewhere, Group Captain M G Mehta, the Defence spokesperson for Gujarat said: “It is not a Defence vessel. There is no question of the involvement of Navy staff.”
Senior Navy officers in Gujarat said they have, however, ordered an inquiry to check on ONGC’s claims. “An inquiry will be set up. But the Navy needs to find out whether the incident comes under the jurisdiction of Gujarat or Mumbai, and if on that particular day Samudrika-III was hired by the Navy, and also about the crew,” said an officer.
Meanwhile, the injured fishermen are yet to hear anything about the confiscated documents. The men who beat them up had issued signed certificates on plain pieces of papers stating that the Navy had carried out the investigation and had confiscated the papers.
Even as the possibility of the fishermen having unknowingly strayed into the ONGC oilfield area is being discussed, there has been no word on why they were beaten up, and by whom. There is no clarity as to who issued them the signed receipts on behalf of the Navy, if the naval staff were not onboard the ONGC vessel.
Most of the fishermen sustained severe bruises on the thighs, shoulders, arms, abdomen, besides internal injuries. One of them, Darti Raja, the tandel (captain) of Tirupatinath said he was clubbed. He has lost his hearing and suspects having sustained skull injuries.
The fishermen said they were roughed up so badly that they could not sail back after the incident. They drifted on the high seas for three days before finally reaching Diu on September 19. Kanji Chudasma, the tandel of Kamryog said: “On September 14, Samudrika-III apprehended a Veraval-based boat. They sent the boat back to us. One by one the boats were called and the fishermen summoned onboard Samudrika-III. They beat us up with wooden sticks. Each fisherman received 30-35 wounds,” said Kanji.
The crew of Tirupatinath was the first to be called to Samudrika-III, followed by Ishwarkrupa, Karmyog and other boats.
“We saw five men on deck. We don’t know if there were more inside. All of them were in causal wear. No one was in uniform,” said Kanji.
The fishermen, who submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Diu Collector on Tuesday, said, “We were told that our documents will be sent back to our homes by post. But, nothing has arrived yet.”
‘Dubious’ documents
The six certificates issued on plain paper to the fishermen says: This is to certify that during inspection/investigation of my fishing vessel carried out by the Indian Navy on 14/9/09, no item was confiscated/ damaged/taken by the investigating authorities. All papers were checked and returned to the master of the fishing boat. There are no complaints of any nature of investigation carried out.
The handwriting below it says: Following documents are taken by the Indian Navy in the oilfield area.
1) ID card-6; 2) Fishing License-1
3) Boat documents-1
The right hand corner of the certificate bears the signature of the boat master along with the date, while the countersign doesn’t bear the name or rank of the Navy officer.
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