MUMBAI: The police on Thursday arrested three men who survived an explosion on a stranded ship off the city’s coast while attempting to steal copper pipes, which resulted in the death of four of their gang members. The trio had managed to flee after the explosion, suspected to have been caused by a gas leak last week.
The Navy was also informed, and an operation to retrieve the bodies from inside the ship was launched with their assistance. The arrested accused were identified as Shiven Shailesh Shundul, Pratik Pandhrinath Patil, and Vijay Premnath Sanjiva. Three of the deceased have been identified as Vinayak Ambavane alias Vinu, Shankar and Ramchandra Nevrekar. The identity of the fourth deceased is not known yet. Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem to JJ Hospital to determine the exact cause of death. The police are also trying to determine the precise sequence of events that led to the explosion. Out of the seven, four went into the ship’s interior to cut copper pipes to steal them. The police suspect a gas leak occurred inside the ship during this time, leading to an explosion and the deaths of all four.
The incident occurred on September 27 onboard Al Jafzia, an unmanned Nicaragua-flagged tanker that has been stranded off the Gorai-Manori coast in Borivali West for the past four months. The three who survived the blast were arrested on Thursday, said Sandeep Ghuge, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 11). They have been remanded to police custody till October 6. Al Jafzia is one of the three ships seized by the Indian Coast Guard on February 6 this year for suspected smuggling of petroleum products in India’s exclusive economic zone in the Arabian Sea. The merchant tanker had received 30 metric tonnes of heavy fuel oil from MT Asphalt Star, another ship seized by the Coast Guard, in the exclusive economic zone, according to an FIR registered by the Yellow Gate police station.
The gang of seven had boarded the ship using a speedboat, according to the police. The police registered an FIR against seven individuals after the bodies of the four who perished in the explosion were recovered on Wednesday. Upon receiving information about the incident, the Gorai police rushed to the scene on Wednesday.
