Delhi HC seeks Centre’s stand on plea to search missing Indian seaman

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the Centre’s stand in a plea seeking directions to the Ministry of External Affairs to monitor the search for a seaman, Vikram Patel, who allegedly went missing from a ship sailing from Russia to Turkey. A single judge Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to the Union Ministry of External Affairs granting it time to file a response, while listing the matter on February 2, 2024. The plea filed by advocates Arbaaz Hussain, Tanvi Dubey and Anukrit Gupta on behalf of the petitioner — Vikram’s mother Kamala Patel —seeks direction to the MEA to “take cognizance of the matter and overlook the search operation” for Vikram. It further seeks a direction to the company in which Vikram was employed to trace his location via his mobile number and “conduct a transparent search operation”. According to the petition, Vikram entered into a job contract with Ocean One SM Solutions Pvt. Ltd. on February 10 this year. Since February 11, Vikram had been sailing on ‘M/T Mando One’. After sailing for six months, on August 11, his wife received a call from Ocean One SM stating that Vikram had gone missing from the ship while sailing from Ust-Luga Anch, Russia, to Mersin, Turkey. She was also provided with the contact details of the captain of the ship for seeking any further information. The plea submits that during this call it was informed that Vikram was not keeping well and was on complete rest since August 1 and that he was last seen by his colleagues on August 10. “The petitioner and her family members reached out to the captain on numerous occasions by way of phone calls, which included calls on August 11, 12, 13, 14, till today. However, shockingly, on all such occasions she received self-defeating, conflicting, and contrary information. The family wrote multiple emails to the company to get an update,” the plea submits. It further states that as there was no reliable update from the company, the petitioner on August 19 wrote a letter to the MEA requesting it to take “cognizance of the matter”. Thereafter, on August 23, the captain informed Vikram’s wife that the investigation report from Danish police was still awaited in the matter. On August 29, the petitioner was apprised about the action taken by the Indian Embassy/MEA, “wherein she was informed that the mission contacted Danish authorities and are waiting for a report from them and further assured that the family will soon get a report from the Danish police”. “Pursuant to relentless efforts on behalf of the petitioner to get an update about the investigation, but to no avail, the petitioner wrote follow-up representations to the MEA on September 4, 12 and 13. However, she has received no reply till date,” the plea submits.

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