Delhi High Court Seeks Centre’s Response On Plea To Locate Indian Seafarer Missing From Ship Enroute Turkey From Russia

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response of the Union Ministry of External Affairs in a plea to locate an Indian seafarer who went missing from a ship while it was enroute Turkey from Russia.

Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice on the wife’s plea seeking direction on the Union Government to take cognizance of the matter and overlook the search operation for her husband, Vikram Patel.

The court granted three weeks’ time to the Union of India through Ministry of External Affairs to file a response in the matter and listed it for hearing on February 02.

Advocate Tanvi Dubey argued the matter on behalf of the petitioner.

As per the plea, Patel entered into a contract of employment with Oceanonesm and has been sailing on the ship which started from India since February 11.

It is the wife’s case that Patel called her on August 08 and told her that the ship was at Russia port. She has said that her husband again called her past midnight but she missed the calls.

“Pursuant to relentless efforts on behalf of the Petitioner to get an update about the investigation, but to no avail, the Petitioner wrote follow up representations to M.E.A on 04.09.2023,12.09.2023 and 13.09.2023. However, she has received no reply till date. The Petitioner and her family has been running from pillar to post but have not found any information regarding the search of Mr. Vikram Patel, till date,” the plea states.

It adds that the wife and the family have been subjected to grave hardship because no sufficient response has been received on their queries made to the company even after more than a month.

Case Title: KAMALA PATEL v. UNION OF INDIA & ANR.