10 February,2011 06:30 AM IST | | J Dey
With 52 Somalian pirates in its custody, Mumbai police struggled to understand them until they found an Ethiopian student in the city to act as an interpreter
While the Navy and Coast Guard were basking in the triumph of their successful anti-piracy operations, the Yellow Gate police was knitting its brows over how to overcome a major communication barrier.
Ethiopian MBA student Faisal Warsal helped Mumbai police record the statement of the Somalian pirates
The 52 Somalian pirates, arrested on Sunday off Lakshadweep islands in a second strike by the Indian Navy, were brought to the city to be interrogated by police.
But the Yellow Gate police, under whose custody the pirates have been kept, just couldn't get through to them. The arrested brigands do not speak any language the city police officials do, and vice versa.
Stalemate
Work had come to a virtual standstill and investigating officer Inspector Bharat Boite was unable to even record the statement of the pirates before a remand application could be presented before the magistrate.
Moreover, policemen in the city were not equipped to deal with the snowballing international refugee issue, as the pirates stand a negligible chance of repatriation.
Boite then approached Mumbai University to find out if any students were versed inu00a0 Somalian language.
But he drew a blank. The registrar told him there was not a single student in the city who could speak or understand Somalian. Boite had hit a wall. Gestures didn't help either, he said.
While the pirates made a merry nuisance at the police station, senior police officers, desperate to break the stalemate, floated an SOS seeking anybody who could understand the Somalians.
Hit pay dirt
In the meantime, the immigration department responded to the Mumbai Police's plea for help. Their records confirmed that an Ethiopian student, Faisal Warsal, was in the city.
Cops ran a check across the city before tracing Faisal to a hotel on Mohammed Ali Road. He was on a 10-day sojournu00a0 before heading to Hyderabad, where he is enrolled in an MBA programme.
Faisal told investigators he had just returned from Ethiopia, Somalia's neighbour, and that he wanted to "chill" in the city before getting back to the grind.
Boite confided in Faisal his dilemma. He told the MBA trainee that the city policeu00a0 needed his help in solving the Somalian pirates imbroglio.
Faisal agreed. Boite recorded the statement of the Somalian pirates. The process lasted for four days. And the investigating team was, at long last, able to put a remand application together.
Since Faisal wants to return to Hyderabad, cops found a replacement, a city-based businessman, Jayant Shah, who understands Somalian.
Not Over Yet
The cash-strapped Mumbai Police, in the meantime, has written to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) asking for an official translator. They are in no position to deal with the exodus of the Somalian pirates in the past few weeks.
They are already finding it difficult to feed some of the survivors of the pirate attacks. By conservative estimates, feeding the survivors entails a huge tab, which runs into a few thousands every day.
Moreover, cops are stuck with completing the necessary investigation formalities, as the offence has taken place in deep seas hundreds of nautical miles off Mumbai coast, where the cops haven't been.
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The pirates are being charged with offences like attempt to murder, arms acts and obstructing government servants from doing their jobs.
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And officials are unable to recover the weapons used in the crimes committed in international waters.
And even as they toil over the predicament, another approaching ordeal distracts them: the arrival of a third batch of Somalian pirates on board ICGS Samar.
