Tirunelveli: Nearly six months after their arrest on charges of entering Indian waters illegally, twelve Indian crew members of a US-based ship were today set free from the prison here following the grant of bail by Madras High Court.
The 12, who were among the 33 detained crew members of the anti-piracy vessel M V Seaman Guard Ohio, were released from the Palayamkottai Central Prison after bail papers were produced before the jail authorities, police said.
The other 21 foreign crew members of the ship are lodged in the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai and are expected to be released after conmpletion of bail formalities.
The crew, arrested on October 18 last year after their ship was intercepted by Indian Coast Guard off Tuticorin port, were granted conditional bail by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on March 26.
Though the court initially ordered them to furnish a surety of Rs two lakh each, later it modified the order and asked them to deposit Rs 25 lakh for all the 33 crew put together as surety with the Tuticorin Court.
