This Article is From Aug 10, 2015

They Asked for Rs 200 Crores for Releasing My Father, Says Daughter of Sailor Held In Nigeria

They Asked for Rs 200 Crores for Releasing My Father, Says Daughter of Sailor Held In Nigeria

Jogesh Chandra Das and 10 other Indian sailors are held in a prison in Nigeria, the family says.

Kolkata: She has knocked on all doors of the government but the appeals of 21-year-old Shreyashi Das in Kolkata seeking her father's release from a Nigerian prison have not yielded any results yet.

Shreyashi's father, Jogesh Chandra Das and 10 other Indians were serving with a shipping company based in Dubai. In July last year, on a trip from Ghana to Cameroon, their engines failed and their ship strayed into Nigerian waters, she said.

"They were arrested. The EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) and the Nigerian Navy asked for a payment of Rs 200 crore for their release," Shreyashi said.

But not wanting to worry his family, it was only in June this year that Mr Das told them that he and his crew have been languishing in Nigerian jail, she said, adding that some of them who had got into an altercation with authorities had their legs broken and haven't even received proper medical care.

"My father is diabetic. I don't know how he is doing. We are having a very difficult time because he hasn't received his salary all this while. Not just us but all other families as well," she said.

"The company, Genesis Forte, and the agent that had sent him on board that ship is based in Mumbai. There has been no response from them. Nobody picks up the phone and their offices are locked," she said. Last week, she filed an FIR at the local police station against them seeking the whereabouts about her father.

From the little that they have heard, the families know that the case is now in a court in Nigeria but is getting delayed. The hearing is in October, Shreyashi said.

The families of the sailors have written to the government and the President but there has been no response.

They have now planned a demonstration in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar on August 18 in hope that their pleas will be heard.
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