The mystery over the country of origin and authenticity of the cargo of the vessel that was intercepted at the Diamond Harbour on Friday evening enroute Karachi, remained unresolved. The ship would be brought to Kolkata on Sunday for “thorough investigation.” Meanwhile, a report has been sent to the United Nations
headquarters at New York seeking verification whether the vessel is indeed a part of the UN Military Mission in Liberia as claimed by the documents on board.
The captain of the ship, Nicholas, a Greek national, was grilled on board by superintendent of police (South 24 Parganas) L.N. Meena and deputy inspector general of police CID Anuj Sharma on Saturday. However, top cops remained tightlipped till the “completion of the investigation.”
“The ship has been detained. We have referred the matter to the UN headquarters at New York through the Union ministry of external affairs. The documents on the ship that claim that the ship was charted by the UN Military Mission in Liberia need to be verified by the UN. However, since it is a weekend, we are expecting a response only by Monday,” said director general of police Bhupinder Singh.
A senior officer on board revealed that 40 Pakistan-made military vehicles, four jeeps and three containers with “12UN High Explosive” printed on them, have been found on the 152.35 metre-long vessel Aegean Glory.
“It is true that the ship is carrying military hardware and huge quantity of explosives but we cannot divulge further details till the entire process of matching the physical cargo with the documents is over. It is a huge ship. It will take at least two-three days to verify its contents,” said the DGP. “The authenticity of the documents also need to be verified,” added Mr Singh.
Teams of state police, Customs department and Coast Guard are working in tandem to check the ship load.
“The ship is expected to reach Kolkata by tomorrow afternoon. It will start off from Diamond Harbour only during the next tide,” informed M.L. Meena, chairman of Kolkata Port Trust.
The ship that had started from Monrovia in Liberia, had reached Port Louis in Mauritius after passing through Cape of Good Hope. From Mauritius, the ship had reportedly sailed to Cox Bazar Port at Chittagong in Bangladesh before entering the Indian waters. Apart from a Greek Captain, there are 19 other crew members from Romania, Ukraine and Greece on board.