pa’s bodyLuruthi-based young seafarer, Jijo Augustine, who mysteriously went missing from a container ship anchored in Hong Kong And was later found dead last month and will be brought back to India on Saturday.
The family of the deceased received information to this effect from Hong Kong Funeral Logistics Services Company Limited on Tuesday. The body to be brought from Hong Kong on Friday is to be delivered to Mumbai in the early hours of Saturday. A decision is yet to be taken on whether the body will be taken to Kochi after the final formalities are completed.
TR was working as a Viper on a Liberian flagged vessel named Jijo kestrel of Mumbai-based XT Shipping Company when it reportedly fell into the sea on May 13. The victim’s mother, Shirley Jacobs, received a call from the captain of the ship that her son had gone missing. Since then she could not contact her son on the phone, after which she contacted MP Hibi Eden.
When the victim had last spoken to her mother, she had told of continuous harassment by the three crew members of the ship. He was then allegedly terminated from service, following which he complained that he was receiving threats over the phone.
Later, a Hong Kong Fire Department vessel retrieved the victim’s body on 17 May from Cheung Chau, an island south-east of Hong Kong. Mr. Eden who took up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Consul General of India in Hong Kong was alerted about the discovery of the body and the victim’s family was informed.
Since then, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, the Consul General, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Norka Principal Secretary Suman Billa were contacted to bring back the body without delay. Mr Eden also called for an inquiry into the young man’s mysterious death.