The last of the Indian sailors who were detained in Iran last year for allegedly smuggling fuel have returned home, ending a months-long ordeal.
The eight men were part of the 18-member crew of the ship MT Valiant Roar, which was detained by Iranian authorities in international waters on 8 December. Some of them were held in a prison in the port city of Bandar Abbas and the rest on the vessel.
After their families approached a court in January and sought the government’s intervention, the foreign ministry said it had secured consular access to them and would be able to have them back.
The company operating the ship had denied the Iranian allegations of smuggling by the crew.
While eight of the crew members returned to India on 10 February, the remaining eight arrived on Sunday. It wasn’t clear if the other two – one each from Bangladesh and Nepal – had been released yet.
The newly returned sailors said their ordeal worsened after the US and launched a war on Iran last month, leaving them stuck in a major conflict.
“Every moment felt close to death,” Anil Kumar Singh, the ship’s chief engineer, told the BBC.
Ketan Mehta, another engineer, said that they could not sleep for days as missiles flew everywhere.
Captain Vijay Kumar said they were intercepted by Iranian naval forces after their vessel developed a technical fault. “There was a fault in our generator. While we were trying to restore power, the navy arrived and intercepted us. Before we could even speak, they opened fire," he told the news agency ANI.
The ship, he claimed, was outside Iranian territorial waters at the time.
#WATCH | CORRECTION | Mumbai | Merchant Navy* Captain Vijay Kumar says, "... The time spent there (in Iran) was very painful... When the war (the ongoing conflict between the US-Israel and Iran) started, initially, we couldn't understand anything at all... We spoke to the Indian… pic.twitter.com/xB564pstCb
— ANI (@ANI) March 30, 2026
His crew was taken into custody and later accused of smuggling diesel. “They asked me to sign documents but I refused. We were detained and after some time they presented us before the media, accusing us of carrying 6,000 litres of diesel," Mr Kumar said.
He added that authorities could not present any evidence despite repeatedly checking the ship.
The sailors were eventually detained for roughly 50 days. “Those days were very painful. We did not even know what was happening,” Mr Kumar said.
Their situation worsened after the US and Israel began the war. “Missiles were falling around us,” he recalled, “it felt like our turn was next.”
The ordeal didn’t end with their release from detention. “We had no money. A taxi demanded $3,000 from us," Mr Kumar said.
They eventually travelled by land to Armenia and then went to Dubai, where they took a flight home.
On the way, they had to stay in a hotel in Tehran while the city was being bombed by American and Israeli forces. Mr Kumar recalled that explosions in the vicinity caused their hotel to shake through the night.
The war has stranded hundreds of tankers and cargo ships on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have killed at least three Indian sailors and left another missing.
The plight of Indian sailors stuck in and around the strait has become a major domestic issue, with Delhi saying it is coordinating with authorities in multiple countries, including Iran, to ensure their safety.
India is the world’s third-largest supplier of seafarers, with nearly 300,000 sailors working across global shipping fleets, according to government data.
