Missing Indian Sailors: Families Say They Were Left to Fight Alone

For four days, the families of Ram Chandra Dubey and Deepak Kumar Gupta have been waiting for a phone call that never comes. The two young Indian sailors have been missing since 25 July, when their ship, the MV AGN Ragnar, was struck in the Black Sea near the Romanian coast. Neither the Indian government, nor the company that recruited them, nor the ship's owners have given their families a clear account of what is being done to find them.

Speaking to The Probe, Dubey's sister, Seemakshi, and Gupta's brother, Sandeep Kumar Gupta, described an ordeal that has forced two ordinary families to chase embassies, ministries and shipping companies for information that should have reached them within hours. What they have found instead, they say, is silence.

Also Read:  Missing Sailors: Family Says No Word From Govt, Ship Owner

The Call That Broke the News, and Raised More Questions

The MV Ragnar was one of three commercial vessels carrying Indian crew attacked in the Black Sea within a single week. On 18 July, the MV Omorfi was struck, killing one Indian sailor. A day later, the MV Golden Leo was hit, killing four more. The attack on the MV Ragnar on 25 July left two Indian sailors missing. In all, five Indian sailors have died in the recent Black Sea attacks, with two more unaccounted for.

Under India's rules governing the recruitment of seafarers, families are supposed to be informed within 24 hours of any such incident. For both families, that did not happen.

"We found out on the 26th, in the afternoon at 1:30," Seemakshi said. The call came not to her, but to her younger sister, from a person who would not clearly identify himself or his company. "Since my brother was abroad, I knew immediately something was wrong."

The caller told the family that Dubey and Gupta had jumped from the ship. Seemakshi rejects this account. "That is absolutely not correct. They did not jump anywhere. They may have fallen from the jolt of the drone attack — but they cannot have jumped, because they had been working for 10 months. They knew the depth of the water, they knew the current." She added: "And if these people saw them fall or jump, then why didn't they save them?"

Sandeep's account was much the same. His father received a call on 26 July from Dwelloship Management, the manning agency that recruited the two Indian sailors. But he says the company never volunteered basic information, and it was only through his own efforts, emailing embassies and government departments in the hours after he learned the news, that he pieced together what little the family knows.

Also Read:  Why Are Indian Sailors Dying in the Black Sea?

Chasing a System That Would Not Answer

What follows in both accounts is a portrait of families left to navigate a bureaucracy alone. Sandeep says he contacted the Ukrainian and Romanian embassies, both of which told him they could not assist Indian citizens and directed him to the Indian mission. When he approached India's Ministry of External Affairs, he was routed to another desk and asked to send an email. "I did send the email," he said, "but no reply has come to the email yet."

The families say the Indian Embassy in Ukraine, which had published emergency contact numbers, stopped answering their calls for a period of roughly 18 to 20 hours. According to Sandeep, a response came only after The Probe published its first report on the case. Even then, he says, officials offered little beyond an assurance that they were "following a channel."

"Every time, they just say: follow the channel," Sandeep said. Both families say the shipping company that owns the vessel, Istanbul-managed and registered to Neva Shipping Corp, has never contacted them. "The ship owner never once contacted us," Sandeep said. He described messaging the ship's captain directly: "When he realised I was the elder brother, he completely ignored me. He still hasn't replied."

The Pilot Boat That Fled

The most significant new detail in the case comes from an eyewitness: Rajat Kumar, the MV Ragnar's chief officer, who survived the attack and is now in Odesa in Ukraine. His account, relayed to The Probe, describes a window in which the two missing Indian sailors might have been saved.

The MV Ragnar had loaded cargo at Izmail Port, a Ukrainian Danube port, and was bound for Greece. As is standard, a local river pilot had guided the vessel toward open water and was preparing to disembark near the Romanian border, where a small pilot boat waited close by to collect him. It was at this moment, according to the account, that the first drone struck.

Two of the Indian sailors jumped into the water either because of the impact of the attack or to escape fire. The crew signalled to the pilot boat, only a few hundred metres away, to rescue them. Crucially, a full 20 minutes passed before a second drone struck. In that interval, only one attack had taken place, and the pilot boat was not itself under threat.

The pilot boat did not stop. According to the chief officer's account, it fled, without even collecting the pilot it had come for. "There was so much time to save them," Rajat said.

Also Read:  Indian by Birth, Passport Gone, Citizenship in Doubt: Samrat Choudhury

A Rescue That Stopped After One Day

On 26 July, a vessel from ARSVOM, the Romanian Agency for Saving Human Life at Sea, conducted a 12-hour search from Sulina to St. George. It found no one. Speaking to The Probe, the agency's operations head confirmed that the search had been called off, and that it could only be resumed if Romania's Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre issued fresh orders, something that, he indicated, would require pressure through diplomatic channels from India.

That confirmation also exposed a piece of misinformation that had briefly given the families hope. A report by the trade publication TradeWinds, citing the maritime firm Ambrey Analytics, had stated that the two missing Indian sailors were rescued with minor injuries. The Romanian agency that actually conducted the search told The Probe this was false. 

"We just want to find out somewhere that they've been hospitalised, that they've been found," Seemakshi said. "Show us a photo, just that they're safe. What else do we need?"

Two Young Men, and the Homes That Wait for Them

Behind the shipping records and the diplomatic silence are two families whose lives have been suspended. Dubey was the hope of his household. "My father's eye surgery had to be done. We used to say, when my brother comes, then the operation will happen," Seemakshi said. "There were many hopes."

Gupta  was due home on 5 August. According to Sandeep, he had asked to sign off the ship weeks earlier, having spent nearly a year at sea, but the company pressed him into "one last trip." Both men were Ordinary Seamen, among the most junior ranks aboard. "They were just Ordinary Seamen, still learning," Sandeep said. "If you hire people this junior, you should protect them."

The families are now weighing a petition to the Supreme Court, seeking an order that would direct the Indian government to press for the search to resume. 

"We need our brother," Seemakshi said. "If he stays as missing, we'll keep considering him missing. We need our brother."

If you or someone you know is a seafarer or family member affected by the Black Sea attacks, Sailors' Society's Crisis Response Network is available 24/7:

Call: +1 938 222 8181 | Chat: sailors-society.org/helpline | Email: crisis@sailors-society.org