New Delhi: The wife of an Indian mariner, who presumably died in a drone attack on his ship in West Asia on March 1, has approached the Supreme Court, claiming that he is alive and being held captive by foreign actors.
Ashish Kumar (37), from Bettiah in Bihar, was the captain of the tanker MT Sky Light. The ship was attacked near Oman’s Khasab port, in what was one of the first attacks on a commercial vessel in the war that started on February 28.
The Indian Embassy in Oman had said at the time said 10 Indian sailors were on board the anchored vessel when it was hit and caught fire.
While eight of the crew members were rescued by Omani authorities, two — Captain Kumar and crew member Dalip — who were in the engine room, remained missing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
On March 4, it was reported that the Omani Coast Guard had found a burnt skull and bones in the captain’s cabin. The Indian mission, at the time said nobody had entered the captain’s room and the remains “most likely” belonged to Captain Kumar.
Kumar’s family have, however, discarded the conclusion and claimed that DNA samples collected from the remains did not match those provided by the captain’s younger brother.
The captain’s family have now filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court, with his wife Anshu claiming that she received a ransom call from an international number, demanding Rs 20 lakh for her husband’s release.
In her petition, Anshu has sought directions to the Government of India, through the Ministries of External and Home Affairs, to trace, locate and produce Captain Kumar by utilising all available diplomatic, consular and intelligence channels.
It has been mentioned in the plea that the Indian Embassy in Muscat informed the family on May 15, 2026, that the recovered remains did not belong to Captain Ashish Kumar.
The petition also relies on a Biological Technical Examination Report issued by the Directorate General of Search and Criminal Investigation of the Royal Oman Police, which reportedly found no human DNA result from the examined bone fragments.
The petition describes this as conclusive scientific evidence disproving the earlier assumption of death, as reported by NDTV.
The petition also relies upon electronic evidence to claim that Captain Kumar remained alive after the attack. It states that on the day of the attack, a WhatsApp message sent by Anshu was successfully delivered to the captain’s second mobile number more than three hours after the vessel was struck, indicating that the device survived the incident.
It has also been claimed that on March 4, 2026, she received ransom calls from international and domestic numbers, demanding Rs 20 lakh for Captain Kumar’s release. The callers apparently claimed that he was alive and in their custody.
