‘Forced to drink toilet water’

The three Kerala sailors, who were in captivity in Nigeria, returned home after for 11 months, on Saturday. Pic/IANS

Three sailors from Kerala, who returned home on Saturday on being released from Nigerian captivity, have told media persons that they were forced to drink toilet water, fell ill due to malarial fever and were to be hospitalised.

Sanu Joseph from Kochi was the chief officer of Heroic Idun ship, V VIjith from Kollam was the third officer and Milton D'couth from Kochi was the ship's oiler. Equatorial Guinea had taken into custody the ship and its crew on allegations that they had crossed its territorial waters. They were in their custody for three months. There were reports that the shipping company had paid a heavy ransom to the Equatorial Guinea, but they were not released.

In between, the government of Nigeria charged them with smuggling oil from Nigerian tankers. The police took them into custody for the next eight months. The Indian government as well as several other agencies intervened and secured their release.

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