City youth released after 10-mth detention in Guinea and Nigeria

KANPUR: After 10 months of agony, 16 Indian sailors -- including city youth Roshan Arora -- who were in detention of Nigerian authorities after being accused of oil theft have been released and are likely to reach home by Sunday.
Elated family members of Roshan thanked Prime Minister Narndra Modi and his government for the relentless pursuit of the case which resulted in the acquittal of all 26 crew members of the vessel by a Nigerian court.
According to Roshan's father, Manoj Arora, his son and other sailors, who were part of the crew aboard vessel MT Heroic Idun, had reached Cape Town in South Africa after being released on June 2 and would now board flights to their respective hometowns in India.
“They are likely to reach India by tomorrow or day after tomorrow,” he said.
Roshan is working as a third officer at MT Heroic Idun.
“The vessel had 26 crew members, including 16 Indians, eight Sri Lankans, one Polish and one Filipino. The ship was detained by the Equatorial Guinea naval ship in international waters on August 12, 2022 and escorted to Luba port in Equatorial Guinea,” he said.
“Since August 2022, the crew has been in detention — first in Equatorial Guinea and then in Nigeria — for alleged oil theft, conspiracy, and evasion of lawful interception,” he said. “According to officials of the OSM Maritime Company, which owns the ship, the vessel was also released on June 2 after the crew members were acquitted by the court there,” he added.
Roshan’s mother Seema Arora and sister Komal said that he was released by the blessings of the people of Kanpur besides the untiring efforts of the Modi government and city MP Satyadev Pachauri.