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Indonesian fishing vessels violate Indian laws

Rajesh Nair

Coast Guard, Customs and IB to interrogate

PUDUCHERRY : Two Indonesian deep-sea fishing vessels, which anchored at Cuddalore port a few days ago without permission, were found to have violated Indian laws, according to sources in the Coast Guard.

The Indian agency, which had got the permit to operate the vessels, had been identified. The owner of the Mumbai- based agency, Affable Fisheries Private Limited, had been summoned by the Coast Guard station here on Thursday.

A joint team of the Coast Guard, Customs and Intelligence Bureau would interrogate the owner and the crew.

The vessels have been blocked and the crew onboard monitored by Central agencies since December 26, the day they were spotted by the Cuddalore port authorities, sources in the Central agencies told The Hindu .

When the port officials tried to contact the vessels, they failed to respond. Subsequently, the CG station here was informed the incident and it launched an aircraft as well as a ship to investigate.

Sources in the agencies said the crew comprised nationals from Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and China. As per the permit guidelines issued by the Agriculture Department, a good percentage of the crew should be Indians. Further inquiries reveal that the vessels did not inform the port and the Coast Guard. Any foreign vessel that had a permit from the Agricultural Department to fish in Indian waters had to inform the Coast Guard and Fisheries Department, sources said.

Last anchorage

It was also learnt that the vessels had their last anchorage at Colombo after embarking from Mumbai.

"Excepting for the fact that the crew have valid passports, they had flouted all other norms. We are looking at every angle, including when the vessels started their journey from Mumbai and how many were on board," an official with the Intelligence agency said.

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