One of the three vessels caught during an Indian Coast Guard operation earlier this month had spent eight days in Pakistani waters and had engaged in suspicious activities by switching off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Very High Frequency (VHF) sensors, according to the FIR registered in this regard.
The vessels MT Asphalt Star, Al Jafzia, and MT Stellar Ruby were intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard in a mid-sea operation approximately 100 nautical miles off Mumbai on 5–6 February. They were reportedly found to be involved in illegal ship-to-ship fuel and bitumen transfers without informing the Indian authorities.
The probe found that 30 metric tonnes of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and 5,473 metric tonnes of bitumen (VG-40) were transferred from MT Asphalt Star to Al Jafzia and Stellar Ruby in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India using forged documents. All three vessels were reportedly involved in a conspiracy to hide their identities through AIS spoofing for illicit trade.
The ICG probe also revealed that MT Asphalt Star was in Pakistani waters between 20 and 28 January, news agency PTI said in a report. On 28 January, the vessel engaged in suspicious activities by switching off all its Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Very High Frequency (VHF) sensors for almost 11 hours, according to the Mumbai police FIR.
MT Stellar Ruby entered Karwar Port (Karnataka) using forged certificates, whereas MT Al Jafzia used fake documents to enter the Alang ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, the PTI report said.
The FIR was registered following a complaint by an ICG commandant and has named Shyam Bahadur Chouhan, Navjyot Chalotra, Gopal Das, Ravi Kumar, Gyna Chandra Gupta, Munwar Khalphe, Shivkumar Sharma, Nasaruddin Mandal, and Jogender Singh Brar as the accused. These individuals were on the vessels along with the crew, officials said.
According to the Indian Coast Guard commandant's complaint, the force spotted the Mali-flagged tanker MT Asphalt Star, which was stationary and was changing its identity repeatedly during an electronic survey, following which an ICG vessel reached it in the early hours of 5 February.
As per the complaint, the crew, upon being interrogated, claimed they were heading towards Mangaluru in Karnataka.
