After Kidnap Ordeal, Odia Sailor Sudeep Choudhury Reaches Mumbai

Sudeep Kumar Choudhury, the kidnapped Indian seafarer released by Nigerian sea pirates along with four of his colleagues, reached Mumbai on Monday.

Sudeep is from Bhubaneswar.

The five seafarers were kidnapped from MT Apecus around 7pm on April 19. The incident was reported by the Director-General, Shipping, to the Ministry of External Affairs the next day.

Following the incident, the Centre had formed an Inter-Ministerial Group of Officers (IMGO). Later, the Indian High Commission had informed about the incident to the Nigerian authorities and urged them to secure the release of the kidnapped seafarers. Acting on the information, the Nigerian authorities facilitated their release.

External Affairs minister S. Jaishankar took to Twitter to inform about the release of the Indian seafarers on June 28.

The incident was reported to the MEA by the Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who came to know about the incident from Sudeep’s father. Sudeep’s wife Bhagyashree Das had also appealed to Sushma Swaraj on Twitter saying her husband has been kidnapped from the MT APECUS (IMO 733810) vessel.

The five kidnapped seafarers were brought to Port Harcourt under Nigerian police escort from where the Indian High Commission safely repatriated them to India.