An Esplanade court on Sunday sent the 35 arrested Somali pirates in police custody till April 4.
The pirates, captured by the Indian Navy during an anti-piracy operation in the Arabian Sea last week, are accused of attempted murder, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, and criminal intimidation among other charges.
The pirates were on Saturday taken to the hospital for medical examination.
The pirates had hijacked a Bulgarian merchant vessel, MV Ruen, on December 14 last year, with its 17 crew members in the Arabian Sea, and demanded a ransom of $60 million from the ship’s owner to release the crew and the ship.
Indian Navy’s warship, INS Kolkata, during an anti-piracy operation, warned the hijackers and asked them to surrender. During a long operation, the Navy personnel captured all the pirates and took them to Mumbai and handed them over to the city police for further action.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.