Three men managed to escape from the ship
On Monday, Vijay Sanjiv (40) approached Gorai police and told them that he and six of his associates were on board Al Jafzia on the intervening night of Sept 26-27 when there was an explosion.
They said some of these men hailed from Colaba, while the rest hailed from Virar. Mumbai: Four alleged copper thieves are suspected to have died in an explosion last weekend aboard an unmanned merchant tanker that ran aground almost 1km from Manori beach in July. Three of their aides managed to escape. Police suspect that the blast took place while the group was attempting to cut a pipe, perhaps to steal the copper in it. The Nicaragua-flag merchant vessel, MT Al Jafzia, had got separated from the anchor chain and drifted to Manori owing to turbulent weather in July. Local fishermen had alerted Gorai police and the Coast Guard was also informed. As the beach was rocky and the wind speed high, it appeared risky to move towards the ship. Sanjiv and two others managed to escape, but they did not hear from the other mates. Police alerted the Navy, the Coast Guard and BMC’s disaster cell and a drone was used to view conditions on the ship. Police have been able to identify all the men who were killed; one of them is named Vinu. Postmortem examinations will reveal the exact cause of death. Gorai police will be registering a case of theft against the seven men and are looking for Sanjiv’s two surviving associates.
Gorai police discovered the corpses on Wednesday, two days after one of the survivors approached them, seeking assistance. On Wednesday, police teams, along with other agencies, stepped on board, where they found the bodies of four men.
A preliminary investigation has shown that the group of seven got onto a small boat, owned by Sanjiv, and reached Manori on the night of Sept 26. The quartet lost consciousness, as did Sanjiv, who was nearby. They had food and equipment with them and got on board Al Jafzia. The four who died were in the ship’s engine room. One of them was allegedly cutting a pipe, which led to an explosion. Later, Sanjiv came to and was helped out of the vessel by the other two survivors.