The ship was off the Paradip port in Odisha, when the incident took place.
Highlights
- Four sailors of Indian Navy removed from the survey ship INS Sandhayak
- Asked to stand in attention, one sailor "deliberately slouched": Source
- The ship "reported an incident of insubordination involving the sailors"
Four sailors of the Indian Navy have been removed from the survey ship INS Sandhayak after some of them assaulted an officer on board, in an incident off Paradip along the Odisha coast. According to sources, the sailors were pulled up for insubordination after they failed to carry out orders to pull the survey motor boats onboard. The boats are mounted on the INS Sandhayak when they are not in use.
Asked to stand in attention, one of the sailors "deliberately slouched" in an act of defiance, sources said. This is likely to have prompted the officer to try and physically make him stand properly.
Enraged, the sailor hit him. His colleagues joined in, beating up the officer. Security teams were called in and a helicopter was brought in to remove the sailors from the ship. They now face disciplinary action.
In a statement, the Navy said the ship "has reported an incident of insubordination involving young sailors yesterday". The word "mutiny", it said, cannot be used to describe the incident since it did not involve a rebellion by the entire crew of the ship.
"Indian armed forces are known for maintaining a very high standard of discipline... There is no scope for tolerance for such incidents," the statement read.
The INS Sandhayak has resumed operations after the incident. An indigenously built ship, Sandhayak can conduct shallow coastal and deep oceanic survey and collect oceanographic and geophysical data. The ship, commissioned in 2001 is under the Eastern Naval Command.