SC orders trial of crew members of US vessel under Arms Act

35 crew members of a vessel owned by a US firm, arrested in 2013 for allegedly carrying a huge cache of weapons illegally onboard, will be prosecuted under the Arms Act, the Supreme Court has said.
The apex court said this while setting aside an order of the Madras High Court which had quashed the charges under the provisions of the Arms Act, as alleged by the Tamil Nadu CID in its charge sheet.
A bench of justices Vikramajit Sen and Abhay Manohar Sapre noted that the high court's observations were "wholly unwarranted" and cannot be upheld.
"The very fact that huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the possession and control of the crew members from the vessel and, further during investigation, the crew members were unable to satisfy their legal possession over such arms/ammunition with them by not being able to produce any evidence such as licenses, certificates etc," the bench said.

"It was sufficient to attract the provisions of Arms Act for initiating prosecution of the accused for commission of the offences punishable under the Arms Act, namely, for possessing unlicensed and unauthorized arms/ammunition on the vessel," it said.
The bench also directed the lower court in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu to complete the trial in the case within six months from the date of receipt of the copy of its judgment.

According to the probe agency, on October 11, 2013, the Indian Coast Guard at Thoothukudi had received an information that a vessel, M V Seaman Guard Ohio, was stationed in Indian water and allegedly indulged in illegal activities.

It had 35 crew members on board of which 11 were Indians and the remaining were foreign nationals, it had said.
It alleged that the Indian Coast Guard ship intercepted the vessel and on inquiry, it was found that 35 firearms, 5682 ammunition and 102 magazines were kept in it without any documents and authorization certificates.