The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that two Indian seafarers who went missing after their cargo vessel was attacked in the Black Sea near Ukraine remain untraceable despite extensive search and rescue operations involving Ukrainian and Romanian authorities.
Appearing before a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the search efforts were carried out by Ukrainian authorities, the Romanian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), the Romanian Coast Guard and other rescue agencies, but had failed to locate the missing crew members.
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Taking note of the Action Taken Report (ATR) filed jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA), the bench recorded that, based on information available until August 5, the two missing seafarers — Deepak Kumar Gupta and Rama Chandra — could not be found despite exhaustive efforts.
"It is stated that search operations presently remain suspended pending receipt of fresh information while DGMA continues to pursue all pending investigation and SAR (search and rescue operations) reports and remains engaged with all concerned stakeholders", the court said in its order.
The bench also directed the Centre to facilitate insurance claims for the families of the missing seafarers, noting that the employment contracts provided insurance cover.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Sandeep Kumar Gupta, elder brother of 22-year-old Deepak Kumar Gupta, seeking directions to the MEA to coordinate with the Indian embassies in Ukraine and Romania to ensure effective search and rescue operations.
The petition said the family approached the MEA and the Indian missions in both countries between July 26 and July 30, but their repeated representations neither received a response nor any concrete assurance.
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At the outset of the hearing, Mehta told the court that the MEA and DGMA had jointly filed the status report and that, despite their best efforts, the two missing Indians could not be traced.
Justice Bagchi observed that since the seafarers' employment contracts included insurance provisions, the government should assist their families in securing the claims.
Counsel appearing for the families, however, alleged that no meaningful search and rescue operation had been undertaken, contending that the Indian embassy's publicly available information reflected the situation only up to July 26.
Responding to the allegation, Mehta said there was no practical purpose in continuing search operations at sea at this stage, but assured the court that the authorities remained in constant touch with all concerned stakeholders and were continuing to monitor developments.
On August 3, the Supreme Court had directed the MEA to use diplomatic channels to trace the missing seafarers. It had asked Mehta to obtain instructions from the Indian Embassy in Ukraine and the Embassy of India in Bucharest, Romania, regarding Deepak Gupta's whereabouts.
According to the petition, Deepak Gupta, a resident of Bharataul village in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district, was serving as a crew member aboard the merchant vessel MV AGN Ragnar when it came under attack near Ukraine's Odesa port.
Though his family originally belongs to Bihar's Siwan district, they have been living in Bharataul village for several years.
