Three onboard suspicious boat near Mumbai coast arrested, accused hail from TN

Mumbai Police arrested three persons in the case of a suspicious boat found near Gateway of India officials said on Thursday reported news agency ANIThe accused have been identified as Infant Vijay Vinod Antony 29 Nediso Ditto 31 and J Sahaya Antony 29 reported ANIAs per the police all three accused are fishermen hailing from Tamil Nadus KanyakumariThe accused were earlier remanded to police custody till February 10 reported ANIThe police requested for custody to probe the trios travel route potential criminal activities in international territory and any threats to national and global securityAlthough police maintain that no immediate evidence of wrongdoing was found onboard the vessel the circumstances raised red flags regarding potential maritime security breachesThe trios lawyer Sunil Pandey asserted their innocence stating they had fled from their employer in Kuwait who had taken away their passports and mistreated them reported PTIAccording to officials Mumbai Police launched a probe after a fishing boat was suspiciously found roaming near the Mumbai coast on TuesdayThe police said that during interrogation the arrested accused claimed to have travelled to Kuwait to undertake fishing work at a place owned by a person named Abdullah Mohammed Abdul Rahman Al Sarhid reported ANIAccording to the officials the accused further claimed that they were not paid their salaries in the last two years while working in Kuwait They alleged that their passports and Visas were taken away from them and were not given food on time reported ANIThey also alleged physical assault while in Kuwait the police saidAs per the police the three accused ran away from Kuwait via a fishing boat and reached Mumbai coast in 10 days by sailing from Kuwait through Iran Saudi Qatar and Dubai border reported ANIThe accused also claimed that they were stopped by the police when they reached Qatar and they were released after they said they were travelling to India the officials addedApart from the Mumbai police a team of Maharashtra AntiTerrorist Squad ATS Intelligence Bureau IB and Navy Intelligence have reached the Colaba police station in Mumbai to investigate the matter reported ANIAccording to police a suspicious boat named Abdullah Sharif was found roaming near the Gateway of India by the police deployed on the boat of Yellowgate Police Station while they were patrolling in the sea reported ANIThe police informed the Navy and then seized the boatWith inputs from ANI and PTI