An Indian national, hailing from West Bengal and an employee of a shipping company, has been stranded in Nigeria for past one year following his arrest along with other ship crew members for allegedly violating laws of international waters, his family has claimed.
The family members have also filed a petition before the Ministry of External Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office to intervene into the matter.
According to family members, 50-year-old Jogesh Chandra Das, employee of a Merchant Navy firm, had set sail for South Africa on October, 2013 from Mumbai.
While returning in the month of July, 2014, his ship got stranded in Nigeria and the entire crew was arrested for violating laws of international waters.
"Since July last year my husband along with 10 other crew members is lodged in jail in Nigeria. Although they are allowed to call up their families, we don't know why they have been arrested. We have approached the MEA and PMO. We hope the Indian government will take action and intervene," Das' wife Soma told PTI over phone.
Soma had last spoken to his husband in July.
"Whenever we speak he says that the date of hearing has been preponed. We feel the intervention of Indian government will ease the matters," she said.
Soma, along with other family members of the crew who are arrested in Nigeria, are put up in Delhi and planning to sit for a demonstration near Jantar Mantar.
The family members have also filed a police compliant against the company who had sent Das to South Africa under Kasba Police station area in Kolkata.
