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The plea seeks specific directions to the Union of India to take cognizance of the search operation of Vikram Patel and to direct appropriate measures for conducting search at the Russia port, i.e., Vysotsk port
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought Central Government’s response in a plea to locate the missing Indian seafarer, namely Vikram Patel from a ship between India and Turkey.
The bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to the Ministry of External Affairs and said that certain steps are crucial to be taken by the Ministry.
Accordingly, the court listed the matter for hearing on February 2, 2024.
The petition has been moved by the wife of the missing seafarer through Advocates Tanvi Dubey and Anukrit Gupta.
The plea seeks specific directions to the Union of India to take cognizance of the search operation of Vikram Patel and to direct appropriate measures for conducting search at the Russia port, i.e., Vysotsk port and take appropriate steps to track his location.
After sailing for roughly 6 months, Vikram’s wife received a call from Oceanonesm on August 11, 2023 stating that Patel is missing from the ship while the ship was sailing from Ust-Luga Anch, Russia to Mersin, Turkey. She was told that Patel was last seen by his colleagues on August 10.
“Further, Oceanonesm (company) provided the wife with contact details of Captain Jagdeep Kahlon for seeking further information regarding search operations. At this stage, the Petitioner and her family members immediately reached out to Captain Jagdeep on numerous occasions by way of phone call which included phone calls on 11.08.2023, 12.08.2023, 13.08.2023 and 14.08.2023 till today. However, shockingly, on all such occasions she received self-defeating, conflicting, and contrary information. The family wrote multiple emails to the company to get an update. Since, there was no reliable update from the company”, the plea stated.
The family wrote multiple emails to the company to get an update on Patel. Since, there was no reliable update from the company, the petitioner on August 19, 2023 wrote a letter to the Union of India requesting them to take cognizance of the matter.
On August 23, the petitioner received a reply from Capt. Jagdeep Kahlon wherein she was apprised that the investigation report from Danish police was still awaited. Further she was told that flag state inspection and P&I were also awaited.
Thereafter, on August 29, the petitioner received a reply from the passport office wherein she was apprised with the action taken by the Indian Embassy/MEA, wherein she was informed that the mission contacted Danish authorities and were waiting for a report from them and further assured that the family will soon get a report from the Danish police.
“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 plea stated.
The plea further stated, “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”.
Case Title: Smt. Kamala Patel v. Union of India & Anr.
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