Missing seaman’s family reaches city from Jammu, inspects INS Kochi

MUMBAI: The family of sailor Sahil Verma, who went missing from INS Kochi, reached Mumbai for an inspection of the ship on Saturday when it reached the naval dockyard. INS Kochi is a Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyer and is based in Mumbai. It is attached to the Western Naval Command.
Verma’s uncles met officers of the Yellow Gate police and Indian Navy. The Jammu-based Sahil (19) has been missing since February 27, prompting his family to appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and trace their son.
Sahil had spoken to his family over the phone on the afternoon of February 25, two days before he went missing. The Western Naval Command had tweeted on March 2 that in an “unfortunate incident”, Sahil Verma, Seaman II, had been reported missing at sea from February 27. The Western Naval Command has already set up a board of inquiry after the incident.
Sahil’s father, Subhash Chander, runs a tyre-repairing kiosk and has appealed to several authorities. His maternal uncle Goutam Verma said, “We visited the Yellow Gate police station and were taken to seven to eight points where Sahil stayed on the ship or visited. But we were not given access to the whole ship. We suspect that three others on the ship misbehaved with Sahil.”
His paternal uncle Sohan Verma said that the authorities were likely to call Sahil’s shipmates for interrogation. We want the authorities to get to the root of the case,” he said.
While the Western Naval Command refused to comment, senior inspector Mininath Walekar from the Yellow Gate police station said, “They met the captain and also inspected the ship. We are investigating the matter.”
Senior inspector Mininath Walekar of Yellow Gate police in Masjid Bunder said, “They met the captain and also inspected the ship. We are investigating the matter.’’