umar Nishant (left) with Prerna, wife of hijacked mariner Kumar Prashant at their house in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 20: It was not a call Prerna was expecting on February 14, the Valentine’s Day. Especially, when her husband stays miles away.

On the lovers’ day, a phone rang. Prerna ran and picked it up only to hear that Somali pirates had taken her husband, Kumar Prashant, hostage. Prashant was on board MV Shinin, a cargo vessel owned by the Irano Hind Shipping Company based in Iran.

Since then, a mentally disturbed Prerna and Prashant’s family has been desperately trying to renew contact with the 32-year-old mariner, a second officer with MV Shinin. But their efforts proved futile till today.

On February 14, Pacific Ship Management, the recruiting company of the Irano Hind, gave Prashant’s family a call saying that they had lost all contact with the ship. Five days later, Prashant called up and confirmed on February 19 (Saturday) that Somali pirates had hijacked their ship. In the three-minute call, he also said all the crew members, including him, were safe.

Since then, the family had tried everything, from talking to the authorities with the ministry of external affairs to the directorate of the shipping corporation. However, none of the office holders could give concrete information about the ship and the crew.

Prashant’s younger sibling Kumar Nishant, a medical practitioner, appealed to the Indian authorities to take prompt action, else the situation might steer out of control.

“Prashant has been working in the merchant navy for eight years. He is associated with Irano Hind for two years. We got a call from the officials of Pacific Ship Management on February 14 and they said that no contact could be established with MV Shinin, the vessel on which Prashant was travelling for two days. We kept our cool since many a time vessels travel into deep sea and radio signals go offline. On February 14 evening, we got a call from the officials of the company, who said the vessel could have been hijacked. The damage was done,” Nishant told The Telegraph.

According to information given by the company, the vessel was in the deep waters of north Arabian Sea when it could be last contacted.

The vessel started from Fujairah, an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, with 50,000 tonnes of iron ore and was heading Singapore. Ten Indians and 13 Iranian nationals were on board.

“On February 14, my brother-in-law based in New Delhi called us and said a few news websites of Iran are carrying tickers of a probable hijack of the ship. Since then I have been trying to speak with government officials requesting them for help. I also contacted the ministry of external affairs and officials said that the matter was being looked into. After their assurance, I also mailed them twice but haven’t got any reply. I spoke with Sunil Agnihotri, the directorate-general of the shipping corporation. He, too, said the matter was being probed. Since then he has not taken our calls. We don’t know what is happening and why the officials don’t want to speak to us,” Nishant said.

A sobbing Prerna said she wants nothing but her husband’s safe return. “The Indian government and my husband’s company should take prompt action now,” she said.

Prashant has an eight-month-old daughter, Avani.