KOCHI: As part of the efforts to help the investigators to fish out the suspected goods dropped by crew members of Iranian vessel Barooki, which was intercepted off Kerala, Oceanographic Research Vessel, R V Samudra Ratnakar owned by Geological Survey of India(GSI) will be arriving here.
With the assistance of the Research Vessel(RV), the NIA team along with a geological expert from Kolkata would visit and scour the ocean floor where the suspicious goods were dumped into the ocean on November 30.
According to the NIA officials, locating the goods dropped by Barooki crew-- comprising Iranians and Pakistanis-- on seeing the enforcement officials constituted a major aspect of the ongoing probe.
“Samudra Ratnakar is an advanced RV built in South Korea. GSI has been using the vessel for seabed mapping, deep-water mineral exploration and geoscientific explorations, such as multi-channel seismic survey, gravity survey, magnetic survey, deep sea imaging, sub-bottom profiling, deep coring and dredging activities. The research vessel’s technology will enable the investigators to scour the seabed.”“Using the GPS system, the location where the suspected goods were dropped has been pinpointed. We are planning to start the examination of spot of Monday. Prior to this the research vessel would arrive in Kochi. The operation will last a few days. Right from the beginning,it has been suspected that the material dropped by the accused from the fishing vessel was contraband,” an NIA official said.
The 103.4m-long research vessel is equipped with state-of-the-art systems, including differential global positioning system (DGPS) which can operate in all-weather conditions. It also has an advanced laboratory which can accommodate 25 geoscientists.
Meanwhile, four of the detained crew members, who underwent a Polygraph Test at the Forensic Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram, returned here. And the report of the Polygraph Test will be submitted before the NIA court next week.
Earlier in July, after intercepting Iranian Vessel off Alappuzha coast, the Coast Guard had recovered a satellite phone and Pakistani identity cards.And the vessel’s 12-member crew also included five Pakistani nationals.