Mystery dhow off Mumbai: goats on board,missing satphone

Officers who had been tracking the boat’s journey on the basis of specific intelligence,boarded it at midnight on Wednesday. The crew first claimed that the dhow was headed to Mumbai,but subsequently told the Yellow Gate Port Police that its destination was Sri Lanka.

The Coast Guard had real time coordinates of the Thuraya,which was allegedly used to communicate with people on land directing the dhow’s journey. Initial interrogations have revealed that a man named Usman coordinated with the dhow in Dubai and,once the boat sailed,took a flight to Mumbai,sources said. Usman,who is believed to be a resident of Mumbai’s Mohammed Ali Road,has been charged with criminal conspiracy.

An officer at the Coast Guard OPS-Centre,Western Region,said they had intelligence about a dhow travelling at under 10 knots by a suspicious route in “discreet waters” from Dubai to Mumbai,without revealing its Automatic Identification System.

“Six vessels matched the intelligence which was shared. A few of them communicated with us,and some even had their AIS responding,except for MSV Yusufi,” said the official.

Another officer said,“When the Coast Guard team boarded the dhow,the crew could not give proper answers. Their papers showed 28 goats,but two were missing. Also,livestock is usually ferried from India to Dubai and not the other way round.”

The officer said that the possibility of the missing goats having been killed and the carcasses stuffed with contraband and dumped at sea needed to be probed.

The five-member crew was led by the master of the dhow Rumi Iqbal Hassam. The others were Yakub Abu Bakr Thakra,Ahmed Adam Paleja,Abdul Razzak Usman Madvani and Junas Hassam Bholim. Hassam is learnt to have told the police that the Thuraya was dumped on the instructions of their alleged handler,Usman.

The five men have been charged under sections of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition) Act,2003,the Indian Penal Code,Cruelty to Animals Act,Mumbai Police Act,Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act,and the Indian Telegraph Act.

This is the second active intelligence on suspected smuggling pursued by the Coast Guard in the span of a week. On April 1,a cargo ship,Bruno Schulte,was searched but nothing was found.