Insiders suspect foul play behind disappearance of radio officer from boat at Bombay High on Sunday; police probing why it took crew three hours to report incident
Insiders suspect foul play behind disappearance of radio officer from boat at Bombay High on Sunday; police probing why it took crew three hours to report incident
MYSTERY shrouds the disappearance of a radio officer who went missing from Shivam, a boat used to transport technical crew from one platform to the other, at Bombay High, about 60 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast, on Sunday.
The finger of suspicion points to foul play as it is unclear why the crew on board the vessel took more than three hours to report the incident
A crew member, who did not wish to be named, said Debashish Dey went missing from the vessel under mysterious circumstances. It took nearly three hours for the boat's crew to report the incident.
"It does not take three hours for the master and other members of the crew to find out that the radio officer is missing from a 30-m-long vessel," informed a Bombay High employee.
ONGC spokesperson Narayani Mahil said that the boat and its crew had nothing to do with the corporation.
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Three offshore supply vessels and a helicopter were pressed into service to look for the missing officer for over 72 hours, Mahil said.
A team of ONGC officials boarded Shivam yesterday to carry out an independent inquiry into the case.
Insiders say foul play is involved in Dey's mysterious disappearance. "It could be the handiwork of the diesel mafia active off the city's coast.
Why else would it take three hours to launch a search-and-rescue operation to locate the missing sailor."
Mystery deepens
The FIR filed with the Yellow Gate police indicates that Dey went missing around 5.30 pm on February 13. Shivam, which had 20 members on board, was deployed near Mike North West, an ONGC platform at Bombay High.
A search was launched around 9.30 pm. Dey's body is yet to be recovered and Shivam sailed into Mumbai harbour three days after the incident which could have given the people behind his disappearance enough time to destroy evidence.
Interestingly, before the incident, the vessel owner was planning to change its crew and the new crew was to take over yesterday.
It also took the Yellow Gate police three days to launch an inquiry into the case and they are yet to gather evidence.
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DCPu00a0(port zone) Quaiser Khalid said his officers are conducting an inquiry into the disappearance of the radio officer. "The crew may have many questions to answer," Khalid told MiD DAY.
The diesel mafia is still active in the seas off the Mumbai coast. The crime branch recently busted a racket where diesel from ONGC vessels was siphoned off mid-sea.
Also, only four days ago, an inspector from Yellow Gate was transferred to the control room at South Region headquarters for his alleged links with the diesel mafia.
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