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Pirate attack: Kin of kidnapped Indian sailor in distress, prays for safe return

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Pirate-attack

Family members of the missing Indian sailor Pankaj Kumar believed to be kidnapped by sea pirates from the ship MV Tampen anchored in West African nation Gabon are distressed.

Pankaj Kumar, aged 30, hailing from the Gurdaspur district in Punjab was the Second Engineer of MV Tampen.

“Only last year he got married. We are all distressed a lot. There is no information about his whereabouts in Gabon. The shipping company officials are saying that my brother is missing and beyond that there is no information,” Sandeep Kumar, the younger brother of sailor Pankaj Kumar, told IANS over phone.

According to Sandeep Kumar, the family consists of younger sister, their parents and wife of Pankaj Kumar.

“We have sent an email to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are yet to hear anything from his office,” Sandeep Kumar added.

He said requests have been made to the shipping company the Mumbai based Proactive Shipping Management to do the needful to trace his elder brother.

According to him, aerial search operations were carried out by Gabon authorities on Monday and after that it was stopped.

The ship, with 17 Indian crew, was sailing from Cameroon to the UAE when it developed some propulsion problems and was anchored just two kilometres away from Gabon’s Owendo anchorage when pirates boarded the ship on Sunday morning.

While the pirates threw Pankaj Kumar overboard, they also shot and injured Cook Sunil Ghosh and Chief Officer Naurial Vikas who were later admitted to a local hospital.

“Ghosh (from West Bengal) is doing fine in the hospital. Family members-wife and others- had spoken to him. There is no information about his discharge from the hospital,” a relative told IANS.

“All the sailors on the ship are distressed and would want to come back home,” Nithin Suresh Kuttipravan, a friend of one of the sailors Deepak Udayaraj told IANS.

Kuttipravan is reaching out to various official agencies so that the Indian sailors are brought back at the earliest.

“An official of the Indian Embassy in Congo is trying to reach out to the sailors. The ship captain is under a lot of stress and is answering the officials from the Gabon government,” Kuttipravan said.

He said as per the information from the sailors on board of MV Tampen, the ship’s satellite phone was not working for the past one month.

“They were communicating using email. Now they are using Whatsapp using their Indian SIM cards. We have requested the Indian Embassy to provide the sailors local SIM cards so that they can stay in touch with their family members,” Kuttipravan added.

The Honorary Consulate of India in Gabon is John Rupchandani.

According to Kuttipravan, all the sailors are ready to sign off and reach India at the earliest.

“It seems the shipping company wants the sailors to sail to Dubai after setting right the ship,” he said.

“As per my information, the pirates wanted to kidnap about three/four sailors. While resisting the kidnap attempt, the pirates had shot two Indian sailors,” Kuttipravan said.

According to him, the ship was sailing at a speed of four knots powered by one propulsion and the ship dropped anchor just two kilometres away from Gabon’s Owendo anchorage.

The ship is owned by Prince Marine Transport Service Pvt Ltd, Mumbai and the sailors were provided by Proactive Ship Management.

The ship sailing from Cameroon to the UAE has been facing technical problems enroute. Both its propulsion systems had stopped several times.

The vessel was diverted to Owendo for repairs as it was the nearest port.

On Sunday, six pirates attacked the ship and kidnapped Pankaj Kumar and shot two sailors.

“The marine and local police in Gabon are questioning three persons who had boarded the ship two days before the attack. We hope to know some information about the attackers and the missing crew today (Wednesday),” Captain Sunil Kumar, Security Officer of Proactive Ship Management, told IANS on Wednesday.

“One garbage cleaner and two technicians had boarded the ship as per the information conveyed to us by our agent there,” he had said.

Officials of Prince Marine Transport and Proactive Ship Management were not available for an update when contacted by Mumbaipress.

Crime

Mumbai: RPF Cracks Down On Fake ‘Tantrik’ Posters Across Suburban Railway Network, Seizes 22,000 Illegal Ads

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Mumbai: In a major crackdown on fraudulent advertisements inside Mumbai’s suburban railway network, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Western Railway’s Mumbai Division intensified its campaign against fake ‘tantriks’ and ‘vashikaran babas,’ whose posters had been illegally plastered across local trains and platforms. On October 14, an accused and his two accomplice were arrested with more than 22,000 posters.

According to an official, posters, often promising supernatural fixes to personal, health, and financial issues, have not only misled commuters but also defaced railway property.

Following a spate of complaints received via social media and the Rail Madad portal, Senior Divisional Security Commissioner Santosh Kumar Singh Rathod formed a special enforcement team. The drive gained momentum under the leadership of Sub-Inspector Santosh Soni.

“On October 14, acting on a tip-off, Soni and his team apprehended Abdul Samad, son of Irshad Khan, red-handed while he was pasting such posters inside a stationary local train at Platform No. 2 of Andheri station. Over 600 posters were recovered from his possession at the scene” further added official.

During interrogation, Samad disclosed the whereabouts of the main culprits — a self-styled so called godman and his accomplice — who were later arrested from their hideout in Mira Road. A subsequent search led to the seizure of an additional 22,000 posters. All three individuals, along with the confiscated materials, were handed over to the RPF post at Andheri for further legal proceedings.

“This is part of an ongoing operation to cleanse the railway premises of illegal and misleading advertisements,” said an RPF official. “The actions are aimed at curbing fraudulent practices and improving the aesthetics and safety of local trains.”

In just the past month, RPF teams have nabbed 29 offenders caught red-handed while putting up such posters. A total of 49,100 posters have been seized during this period, and fines amounting to Rs 13,000 have been imposed by the court.

This drive follows a similar operation conducted in May 2025, during which 53 offenders were booked, and 37,400 posters were confiscated. That campaign led to penalties totaling Rs 26,500.

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Crime

SC stays Karnataka High Court order nullifying Congress MLA’s election

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New Delhi, Oct 14: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a decision of the Karnataka High Court that had nullified the election of Congress MLA K.Y. Nanjegowda from the Malur Assembly constituency in the 2023 polls.

However, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi did not interfere with the direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding recounting of votes but ordered the poll body to keep the revised results in a sealed cover.

“Issue notice. In the meantime, the operation of the impugned order of the Karnataka High Court, to the extent it set aside the election of the appellant (Nanjegowda), shall remain stayed. Resultantly, the appellant shall continue as the elected Member of the Legislative Assembly,” ordered the Justice Kant-led Bench.

However, the ECI is directed to comply with the directions to the extent of recounting of votes and submit the result in a sealed cover, and the recounting results shall not be disclosed without the permission of the Supreme Court, it added.

In an order passed on September 16, the Karnataka High Court had nullified Nanjegowda’s election but granted him 30-day timeline to file an appeal before the Supreme Court. If the apex court does not give any relief, the Congress legislator will lose his seat, clarified a bench of Justice R. Devdas, while pronouncing the verdict on a petition filed by the defeated BJP candidate K.S. Manjunath Gowda.

Manjunath Gowda has moved the Karnataka High Court, seeking a recount of votes polled in the Assembly elections, as the margin between him and Nanjegowda was just 248.

The BJP candidate had claimed that counting officials called him on the phone and said that he had won the elections. But later, it was announced that the Congress candidate had won by a margin of 248 votes. Hence, he had moved the Karnataka HC, seeking a recount of the votes polled.

The election petition was presented under Section 81 of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, and Rule 4 of the Karnataka Election Petition Rules.

Manjunath Gowda has prayed the Karnataka High Court to call for records, documents, videos, computers, including the one where the rejection order was drafted, and all further material and data regarding the election, including the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the postal ballots, the videography and computations relating to elections, and to hold them in custody.

The petition further demanded to set aside the election of Nanjegowda on the grounds mentioned under Section 100 (1) (d), (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) as enumerated therein and to declare him as the elected candidate from the Malur constituency.

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Crime

Two petitions filed at Calcutta HC in Durgapur gang-rape case

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Kolkata, Oct 14: Two parallel petitions have been filed at Calcutta High Court on Tuesday in the gang-rape case of a tribal medical student in Durgapur of West Bengal’s West Burdwan district.

On one hand, the West Bengal unit of the BJP has filed a petition to carry out its protest demonstration near the private medical college till October 19. On the other hand, the authorities of the said private medical college have approached the Calcutta High Court seeking the removal of gatherings of people in front of the college premises, considering that the examinations are being conducted there.

Both the petitions have been filed at the single-judge bench of Justice Shampa Dutt (Paul). The matter is likely to come up for hearing in the second half in the later part of the day.

Altogether five people have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of the Dalit medical student. The confidential statement of the victim is scheduled to be recorded in front of a judicial magistrate later in the day.

The victim’s parents have already claimed they will take their daughter back to Odisha soon after her confidential statements are recorded.

On Monday, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi spoke to the victim girl, who is still admitted at the hospital. Even the victim expressed a desire to go back to her native state and continue with her medical studies there.

The Odisha Chief Minister had already claimed that his government will take all the steps to ensure the culprits in the case are given due punishment.

Recently, the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attracted criticisms after she advised women not to go outside at night amid the Durgapur incident. The Chief Minister also created controversy, claiming that the woman stepped out of the college premises at 12.30 a.m.

Her statement was contradicted by the college authorities claiming that they left the premises at around 8 p.m. on October 10 after signing the register and taking permission.

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