Indian Engineer abducted by pirates in Nigeria finally rescued

Santosh Kumar Bharadwaj, a marine engineer with the Singapore based firm Transocean Limited, was abducted by Nigerian Pirates on March 26, was released and has returned to India.

Bharadwaj was brought to India on Wednesday night to his home in Rajtilak Nagar Colony in Manduadih area of Varanasi after one and a half months of captivity. His enstranged family was reunited and was jubiliant as he returned back home due to Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and team’s efforts along with his company Transocean Ltd.’s efforts.

Bharadwaj’s family, especially his wife, had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding freedom to be given to her husband Santosh Kumar Bharadwaj.

According to Bharadwaj he was kept there for 45 days and was given proper food and water and allowed to interact with others in captivity during the 45 days he was there. He was not harmed and the only gain pirates wanted was from, their employers or their governments of money.

The ship was hijacked by the pirates on the wee hours of morning on 26^th March when they suddenly entered their ship pointing guns and asking them to step on into another boat. The pirates then took them to a pirate hideout of theirs on an island off-coast with a village with forests surrounding it. He was allegedly held captive in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday, tweeted “I am extremely happy to inform that Santosh Bhardwaj has been rescued from pirates in Nigeria”.

Santosh Kumar also thanked the authorities saying, “I am quite thankful to Sushma Ji because she made serious efforts to get me released and also consoled my family members. Certainly, the government acted promptly in this case because I belong to the PM’s constituency”.

His daughter Charu and father Virendra Prasad Thakur plan to celebrate his marriage anniversary in a grand way.

Along with Bharadwaj his five member team, including one Pakistani, two from Ukraine and one from Bangladesh were also abducted from the ship.

By Anushka Jain with inputs from HindustanTimes

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