Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested three men from Tamil Nadu for illegally entering India on a fishing boat from Kuwait in an attempt to flee the country, an incident that raised concerns about a potential maritime blunder.

A police officer said the boat was spotted while patrolling the Mumbai coast on Tuesday morning. During the investigation conducted so far, the police found that the three were fishermen from Tamil Nadu who had been working in Kuwait since the past two years.

He said that after allegedly being mistreated by their agents, the trio fled the Gulf countries on their owner’s fishing boat without permission and entered Indian territory illegally.

The official said the arrested persons were infants Vijay Vinod Anthony, Sahaya Antony Anish (both 29 years old, residents of Kanyakumari) and a child from Thailand. Nidiso Dito (31) of Ramnathpuram, Mirnadu.

A local court here remanded them to police custody until February 10. The incident raised concerns about maritime security as 10 Pakistani terrorists arrived by sea before launching a terror attack on the city in November 2008.

The 26/11 terrorist attacks killed 166 people and injured hundreds. “On Tuesday around 7.30 am, officials from Huangmen police station spotted a suspicious vessel while on patrol in the Arabian Sea. The vessel, of a different make, was spotted moving near the Sassoon jetty, following which the police patrol boat approached,” the FIR said. and found three people on board.

The three men spoke neither Marathi nor Hindi. Suspicion grew as they spoke broken English, reports said. The police patrol then informed the Southern Zone Control Room and sought assistance, following which two police boats and a naval vessel reached the spot, the FIR said.

Then, the three men stopped the boat. The official said the police asked them to come along to investigate, but they did not launch the boat, which was later towed to India Gate.

He added that during the investigation it was discovered that the three were fishermen and that the fishing boat they were traveling on belonged to their owner in Kuwait, Abdullah Sharahit.

The FIR stated that they hijacked fishing boats from Kuwait without permission, crossed the international border and illegally entered Indian territory without passports.

City police made the formal arrests on Wednesday. The boat carrying three people was anchored at India Gate on Tuesday.

On the face of it, nothing suspicious was found on the boat, he said.

The Colaba police have registered a case against them, the official said.

“The police arrested them after registering a case under Rule 3(a) of the Passport (Entry into India) Rules and Criminal Section 6(a) as they failed to follow due process required for entry into India,” he added.

A 34-year-old police officer from Yellow Gate Police Station lodged a complaint with Colaba Police Station.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)