Marine vessel "Kuber",hijacked by terrorists to reach city coast on November 26 last year for terror strikes,will resume fishing activities on Diwali this year,its owner Vinod Masani told a special court on Monday. "I and my family were so terribly upset over hijacking of Kuber by terrorists that we decided to withdraw it from fishing until Diwali," Masani said. Presently,"Kuber" is anchored at Porbunder and has been out of fishing after the 26/11 attacks. The boat was seized by police soon after the attacks but was returned to its owner after he furnished a bond. To a question by Kasab's defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi,Masani said,"My family owns six boats,two of them were seized by Pakistani police some time back when the vessels had gone for fishing. One of them has since returned while the other is still with Pakistan authorities". Asked why he had not informed the Porbunder authorities that Kuber was "missing" after it did not return from fishing expedition within ten days from November 22 last year,Masani said it is quite normal for fishing boats to return late if they were caught up in storms in high seas. Both "Kuber" and "Maa" had gone for fishing together but got separated after facing a storm in mid-sea. While "Maa" returned,"Kuber" did not. We decided to wait for some time before reporting it to the authorities," he told special judge M L Tahaliyani. Masani was shown articles,including ropes,jackets and blankets recovered by police from the vessel. After looking at them,he told Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam that these articles did not belong to him or his staff. Asked on what basis was he saying this,Masani replied,"because I had given some articles to my crew and I know that the articles shown to me in the court are not mine". Police claimed to have seized certain articles from "Kuber",saying these belonged to terrorists. The articles were shown to Masani to prove the police case that they were brought from Pakistan by LeT suspects. Masani said he had given a mobile phone and a walkie talkie to the navigator of Kuber Amarsinh Solanki but these were not found in the boat. Masani told Kazmi during cross-examination that fishing trawlers in Porbunder were given "creek passes" and the name of the boats and their crew members were mentioned on these passes. He said in Kuber's pass,Mukesh Ambu's name was mentioned along with others. But instead of Mukesh,Hiru Arjan had gone because Mukesh had taken leave as his son was unwell. Four crewmen of the vessel,including Hiru Arjan,were captured by the terrorists and transferred to another boat Al-Husseni. All the four are reported missing since November 22 when "Kuber" was hijacked. Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab,Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed are facing trial in a special court here in connection with the Mumbai terror strikes.
