After going through an approximately 11-hour long search operation, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessel Agrim, that is under the command of Commandant(JG) Umed Singh's team, managed to interdict the Russian flagged Cargo ship—MV Sevastopol—110 nautical miles (204 km) that tried escaping yesterday. The vessel had been under order of arrest issued by the Madras high court and was trying to escape in order to circumvent the imposed judicial proceedings, as commented by officials.

The ICG managed to interdict the ship at 11.45am in a sea-air coordinated operation. The vessel was trying to enter UAE in order to successfully cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). At the time the ship was 27 km north-west of Mumbai in Alpha Anchorage when the Russian Federation Flagged General Cargo Vessel tried to flee.

“The shipping company had been faced with a litigation in the Madras high court based on the plea that was filed by M/s NTC Logistics (P) limited, Chennai. On February 13th, in a commercial dispute, the HC issued an arrest warrant against the ship in question. The information was then shared to us on the 15th of February in regard to the arrest notice. The ship received the same information while patrolling and was informed about the arrest order via shore based monitoring stations on the MMB channel," the Indian Defence spokesman commented.

The cargo ship was also been ordered to not proceed before managing to resolve the commercial dispute, as the matter was then under litigation.

"On Tuesday at roughly 1 am, the cargo ship picked up her anchor and began sailing away. We also managed to notice that the ship had turned off her automatic identification system (AIS), along with the GMDSS equipment and navigational lights, which are all against SOLAS convention requirements, as well as breaches to collision regulations. Once again we tried to direct the ship to return and comply with HC directives. However we did not receive any response. After performing extensive search procedures with the help of coast guard vessels and aircraft, we managed to locate the cargo ship at 11.40 am," the official further added.

Image: ICG