Ravi assures help on missing crew members

Kochi, Oct 12 (UNI) Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi today said instructions would be given to the External Affairs Ministry to confirm reports of Indian crew members from the missing 'Jupiter 6' ship languishing in jail in Portugal.

Mr Ravi, after receiving a memorandum from Joby Mathew, brother of missing sailor Jose Mathew here, said the Ministry would take up the issue with the Embassy of the country concerned.

He assured all steps to ensure release of the sailors if they were jailed.

The ship reportedly had 13 crew members including 10 Indians.

Talking to UNI, Mr Joby said they got a call from the family of Pravin Pandey, a missing sailor from UP, that there was information from Lisbon that three Indians - Jose Mathew from Kerala, Pravin Pandey and Sunil Kumar from Chandigarh - were in jail in Lisbon.

When contacted, the jail authorities said they could give information on inmates only through Indian government authorities.

The ship, towing a dead vessel en route to Alang in India from Walvis Bay in Namibia, went missing on September 5, 2005.

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