Coast Guard detains ship, 35 arrested for carrying weapons

Besides, a case under the Essential Commodities Act has also been registered for buying 1,500 litres of diesel illegally with the help of a local shipping agent.

A senior Marine Police official said the ship, stated to be belonging to a US-based firm offering maritime security, was not authorised to enter the Indian water and its mandate was largely confined to regions in the Indian Ocean like the Gulf of Aden, a hotbed of piracy.

“We can always sympathetically consider innocent trespass.  But this does not look so. They have authorisation to operate in Indian Ocean areas like the Gulf of Aden. But they have come up to Gulf of Mannar. We are seeing why they came here,” the official told PTI from Tuticorin.