NIA on mission to recover objects dropped from foreign dhow "Barooki"

KOCHI: A team of the National Investigation Agency today began a mission onboard a research vessel off Kerala coast to recover objects allegedly dropped in the deep sea from a foreign dhow which was seized by security officials in July this year.

The foreign dhow with 12 crew, suspected to be from Iran and Pakistan, on board was intercepted off Kerala coast and detained by the Coast Guard and state police which recovered a satellite communication set and a Pakistani identity card from the vessel.

NIA sources said a team of NIA officials investigating the case, along with scientists of Geological Survey of India, has ventured into the sea by deep sea exploration ship ' RV Samudra Ratnakar' from Ernakulam wharf this morning.

The team on board the ship, equipped with high-end technologically advanced instruments needed for geological, geophysical and geochemical explorations in the offshore areas, will try to get the objects allegedly dropped into the sea by the 12-member crew before they were taken into custody.

The vessel, owned by Geological Survey of India, is a unique multi-tasking and multi-disciplinary ship with modern on-board laboratories, designed to carry out sea-bed mapping and mineral exploration in the deep waters and also research activities.

The dhow "Barooki" was intercepted by the Coast Guard and state police following intelligence inputs, off the coast of Alappuzha and brought to Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram.

NIA was handed over the case on August 4.

The agency had re-registered a case filed by Kerala Police under Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by Foreign Vessels) Act and Suppression of Unlawful Acts against safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act, 2002.