Iranian boat case: NIA wants sea scan to search weapons

NEW DELHI: In an unprecedented exercise, the National Investigation Agency ( NIA) has asked the Ministry of Mines for the services of a deep-sea exploration ship to help establish if occupants of an Iranian boat dumped weapons into the sea when Indian authorities intercepted it.

A suspicious vessel with a dozen Iranians and Pakistanis on board was stopped by Indian authorities off the coast of Kerala in July. In light of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks where armed assailants came from the sea, the NIA wants to check if the occupants ditched any weapons into the sea before being waylaid.

No ammunition or arms were seized from the vessel and a satellite phone found on the boat has not thrown up any suspicious activity in terms of conversations, NIA officials told ET.

“It does not seem a case with terror dimensions so far, but we want to do a thorough investigation. We have written to the Ministry of Mines to search the seabed in the perimeter of the Iranian vessel’s voyage into Indian waters. The search will take two days at the end of October -the ship is presently on another assignment. We have learnt that the ship, using sophisticated equipment on board, can detect metal and weapons but not drugs,” a senior NIA official told ET.

The ‘RV Samudra Ratnakar’ built in South Korea is equipped with high-end technologically advanced instruments needed for geological, geophysical and geochemical exploration and is designed to carry out seabed mapping.

An NIA communique to Interpol seeking information from Iran and Pakistan on the identity of the boat’s occupants, who are in jail, is still to elicit any response.

The occupants claimed the boat drifted into Indian waters after its engine failed — a claim the NIA is also verifying with the Indian Meteorological Department and the National Institute of Oceanography.