The Chinese government has decided to send their police to look into the suspicious disappearance of Chinese captain of the vessel “Ocean Gem”. The captain, Zhang Ming Qiang, has been missing since September 24.
The Chinese police will visit Nellore and co-ordinate with the local police to crack Qiang’s disappearance .
The local police, who were about to break open the personal locker of the captain, refrained from doing so. They said they would open it only in the presence of the Chinese police and representatives of Admiral shipping company, to which the cargo belongs.
It is learnt that one superintendent from Admiral Company, along with former captain of the ship SM Ejas, already reached Nellore and is waiting for clearance from the Chinese government to break the locker, police said. “Though we decided to break the locker on Saturday, legal compulsions forced us to wait. If we found any undisclosed information or valuables in the locker, we could have faced legal problems,” marine inspector V Pothuraju said. The efforts of the police to secure information from the staff of the vessel ended in vain as other than two chief officers, no one speaks English.
Though police reportedly have key information regarding the disappearance, they are tight-lipped over disclosing facts to the media. According to confidential sources, police on Saturday recovered a passport, one cell phone and bills of various items purchased recently by the captain. The police is said to have informed the captain’s family members of his dissapearance. They retrieved the phone number from his phone that the police had recovered.
Meanwhile, police found a body near Krishnapatnam port, but the employees of the Chinese vessel said that it was not their boss. Police are also looking at murder angle, suspecting differences with some of the vessel crew, police said.