Missing sailor: a month on,police yet to file FIR

“There were more than 350 people on the ship and only he is missing. We believe that there was a foul play and his body was subsequently dumped into the sea,” said Pandey.

The family has also alleged that the navy was supposed to have provided them with a copy of an internal inquiry into the incident on May 3. “Nobody is giving us any information and we are fed up,” Pandey said.

According to Pandey,the missing officer’s father had earlier approached the Yellow Gate police to file an FIR on April 15,three days after the incident. But the police instead filed a complaint. “Even on April 24 when Shukla’s wife went to record her statement,they refused to file an FIR. But this time,we’re determined to file it or else we’ll approach the media,” said Shukla.

The incident occurred on April 12 when Prem Prakash Shukla was reportedly seen last on the ship at 8am. At that time,the ship was somewhere between Karvar and Goa in deep waters. “I got a call from an officer’s wife that night at 8pm. She told that my husband had gone missing while the ship was on its way back to Mumbai,” Usha Shukla,Prem Prakash Shukla’s wife had said. Usha had talked to Prem on the night of April 10 when the ship had started sailing from Cochin.

A muster check,which was carried out at 9 am on the next day,revealed that Shukla was missing. However,the ship crew had searched for him till 11 pm and at 12 noon the course of the ship was reversed to Karvar to carry out a search operation. The ship reached Karvar between 4 pm and 5 pm and there was a lapse of about eight to nine hours.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) refused to comment on the issue. Senior Police Inspector of Yellow Gate police station,Noor Mohd. Abdul Mulani said as the issue was under investigation,he could not comment on it.