Crew members of seized Iranian boat sent to jail

The 12 crew members of a suspicious Iranian fishing boat that was intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard and later handed over to Kerala Police were on Monday sent to two weeks judicial custody.

The Vizhinjam police had registered a case and a court in suburban Neyyatinkara on Monday remanded them in judicial custody. They were later sent to the Neyyatinakara sub jail, said a Kerala Police official.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Police had already sought the help of the National Investigation Agency to take forward the case and their officers also joined the probe on Monday. It was after detailed questioning that the crew members were produced before the court.

Sources in the know of things revealed that the probe is likely to be taken over by the NIA.

The alert from Kerala Police had come on Friday, after which the Coast Guard started conducting a special surveillance from two of its ships and a dornier.

The Dornier spotted the craft close to midnight on Friday while the two Coast Guard vessels shadowed it.

Just before dawn on Saturday, a team from the ICGS Samar, one of the coast guard ships, boarded the fishing boat, Barooki, which was flying an Iranian flag.

The boat and its crew were taken yesterday to Vizhinjam, where a joint interrogation was done by the Intelligence Bureau, state intelligence, local police, scientific experts and bomb disposal squad.