Abandoned boat with 3 AK-47 rifles seized off Raigad coast

An abandoned foreign-origin vessel, with three AK-47 rifles and ammunition on board, was seized off the Harihareshwar-Shrivardhan coast in the Raigad district of Maharashtra on Thursday. Following the capture, the police and other security forces were mobilised to be alert for any untoward incident.

Any immediate threat was ruled out, as the boat seemed to have been adrift for a while, and that it might have floated over to Raigad coast from the Oman coast.

As soon as the boat was sighted in the choppy Arabian Sea, the Indian Coast Guard and Maharashtra police were alerted, and an investigation was launched.

The 16-metre-long boat was identified as Lady Han, owned by an Australian, Hana Laundergun, her husband, James Harbert, was the ship’s captain.

Top officials of the Indian Coast Guard, Raigad police and Anti-Terrorism Squad were in Raigad for further investigations.

The capture of the boat and the weapons was reviewed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio.

“The boat was on a voyage from Muscat to Europe,” Fadnavis told Maharashtra legislature.

“On June 26, around 1000 hrs, the engines of the boat failed after which the crew sounded a distress call. Around 1300 hrs, a Korean warship, which was in the vicinity, rescued the crew and handed them over to Oman authorities,” Fadnavis said, adding that the boat could not be towed at the time, because of tidal waves.

“Subsequently, because of currents, it ran adrift and came floating to the Raigad coast,” Fadnavis said.

Security was strengthened across Maharashtra, as the festive season kicks off with Krishna Janmashtami-Dahi Handi on Friday, and Ganesh festival, which falls in August end.

Alert was sounded in all coastal districts, including the twin districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban, north Konkan districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad, and south Konkan districts of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

Fadnavis, however, dismissed any terror angle to the weapons’ capture and said: “As of now, there is no terror angle. We have got confirmation on the boat getting adrift after stopping the engine, we have the details of the owners. We cannot go into more details at this stage as investigations are underway…we are not ruling out anything...the due diligence in such cases is being done.”

He was also tight-lipped about the reason why there were weapons on board, or why the boat was owned by Neptune Maritime Security. “We don’t have the details as of now,” he said, but revealed that state and central intelligence agencies were sharing information.