2 years after arrest, days after return, govt offers help to ex-Navy officer

Too little too late The Indian governmentrsquos delayed response to his worst nightmare has left Pradeep Sharma a former naval officer embittered and flummoxed The 53yearold resident of Kharghar Navi Mumbai was arrested over two years ago while aboard a merchant vessel with 15 other crew members including 10 Indians for trespassing into Nigerian waters and oil theft With that began the crewrsquos harsh struggle for freedom food and fundraisingSharma and his family claim that they wrote several letters to the central and state governments since his arrest pleading for help The Indian Embassy in Nigeria allegedly offered no help forcing the family to raise funds for his trial on foreign soil on its own Sharma was finally acquitted of all charges along with the rest of the crew on June 30 this year and returned home on July 3The Indian government responded mdash allegedly for the first time mdash through a letter addressed to the Maharashtra chief secretary signed by Pramod Kumar undersecretary of the ministry of home affairs only on July 5 The letter requested the chief secretary to look into the ldquopetitionrdquo and initiate appropriate action A copy of the letter was marked to Sharmarsquos son Anshul From Navy to merchant vesselsSharma had served in the Navy as a chief petty officer a noncommissioned rank for 24 years with even a posting in the Western Naval Command headquarters in Mumbai at one pointPost retirement in 2008 he began working on merchant ships In 2013 he was recruited through a crew manning agency mdash Genesis Forte India Pvt Ltd in CBD Belapur mdash by Ghanabased Indianowned Saroj Shipping Company as the third engineer the third most senior engineer on board of vessel MT motor tanker Maro MT Maro was to be taken to Cameroon in West Africa to be dismantled and disposed of The vessel had a crew of 16 including 11 Indians Engine breaks downOn October 22 that year he was flown to Accra in Ghana and set sail aboard MT Maro from Tema 25 km from Accra on the Atlantic coast of Ghana on July 16 2014 The vesselrsquos engine reportedly broke down in international waters near Nigeria soon after departure The crew repaired the engine No soon had the vessel set sail again than its engine broke down again The crew anchored the ship reportedly still in international waters and relayed the situation to the ship manager in Tema Arrested in NigeriaIn the meanwhile a Nigerian naval patrol team spotted the vessel and tried to approach it It was however unable to communicate or get aboard MT Maro owing to rough weather Suspecting that the vessel had pirates the patrol team fired two to three rounds of warning shots at itThe next day the Nigerian Navy took MT Marorsquos captain into custody for questioning The captain returned a day later but the crew was detained by the navy and taken to Brass a port in Bayelsa southern Nigeria According to Sharma the crew was assured that the detention was only customary and that it would be released the same evening Instead the crew was thrown into the naval prisonOn July 18 Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps a paramilitary agency of the Nigerian government took over the case and slapped the crew with a fine of 15 million naira around R318 lakh as per todayrsquos exchange rate for trespassing into its waters Seven days later the case was transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes which charged the crew with oil theft besides travelling without the relevant documentsFrom behind bars the crew managed to highlight its plight before human rights agencies Pressed by human rights activists the Nigerian authorities finally produced the crew before the Okaka prison court in Yenagoa Bayelsa on October 27 and the trial began The case was transferred to Afokang court in Calabar after the trial judge was transferred there in November 2015 No help from EmbassySharma claims that in their time of agony the crew approached all relevant authorities including the Indian Embassy but received little help ldquoOfficials from the Embassy visited us in the initial days But later there was no such visit We were left to ourselves to even find a lawyer to represent us My family wrote letters to several authorities in state and central governments none of whom respondedrdquoInitially Saroj Shipping Company paid for a lawyer for the crew but failed to make later payments With his legal fees gone the lawyer refused to represent the crew After hearing of the crewrsquos plight Nigeriabased Indianowned Sterling Group Companies which has an office in Mumbai helped arrange for another lawyer on humanitarian groundsThe court found the crew innocent of all charges and freed it on June 30Sharma alleges that after the trial ended Indian Embassy authorities swooped in to take credit and provide help to the 11 Indians ldquoThey offered to buy our tickets for the flights back home They provided us with emergency certificates in lieu of our passports which had been lost in the interim I was told that the authorities would receive us at the Delhi airport but we were instead questioned for five hours there Later I managed to arrange for money to reach MumbairdquoSharma says since the family had to raise funds for the trial on its own he is now being crushed under a R5lakh debt burden ldquoMy son had to take up a job at a call centre and my wife was hospitalised for depressionrdquoIn the initial days Genesis Forte India Pvt Ltd in Navi Mumbai tried to help out the Sharma family but its office has allegedly been shut since Decemberend last yearThe letter the family received after Sharmarsquos return was the last straw that broke its patiencemidday reached out to the MoS and the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs for comments There was no responseGovt of little useManoj YadavSecretary Forward Seamenrsquos Union of IndiaIn such cases of detention in international waters neither the government nor the Indian Embassy comes to the crewsrsquo rescue Sailors have to seek help from private parties Such crew membersrsquo chances of landing future contracts are ruined even after they are acquitted of charges and released from jail The government should think of ways to rehabilitate such sailors