The mysterious death of an Indian sailor; crew members report ghostly disturbances

By Shevlin Sebastian 

On January 29, sailor Bhupendra, 24, was having lunch with his colleagues Devadasa Shivaraya and Cheekati Gurumurthy in the mess room of the tanker MT Sea Princess, as it sailed in international waters off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. The 28-year-old ship was on its last journey; it was headed towards the ship-breaking port of Alang in Gujarat. 

After lunch, the trio went to do different tasks. At 4 p.m., fitter Dhananjay tried to locate Bhupendra, since they worked together in the galleys, but couldn’t find him. So Dhananjay went to Bhupendra’s cabin but he was not there. Then he went to the bridge. Again, Bhupendra could not be found. At 4.40 p.m., an alarm was sounded. 

All the 12 crew members took part in the search. And it was only at 5.15 p.m. that Gurumurthy found Bhupendra hanging in the boiler room. When they brought the body down, Birendra had no pulse. At 5.45 p.m., Bhupendra’s body was shifted to the cold room. 

The authorities were informed, including K Sreekumar, the Inspector at Chennai of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). 

Since the death of Bhupendra occurred in international waters, the authorities at Sharjah were reluctant to allow the ship to come back. But when a request was made by the Indian Embassy and the ITF, the ship was allowed to return. Thereafter, a postmortem was done in a hospital at Khor Fakkan and the body now remains in the mortuary. The ITF is awaiting the release of the police report. 

“From what I heard, Bhupendra had completed a nine-month contract, and stayed on for another three months, because the company, Prime Tankers did not let him off despite repeated requests. But the company said since the ship was going to Alang, they told Bhupendra to continue till he reached India,” said Sreekumar.  

It seemed he felt depressed by these repeated rejections and committed suicide. Interestingly, Bhupendra did not leave behind any suicide note. This was confirmed to Sreekumar by the captain Nirmal Singh Brar (the captain was unavailable for comment, citing insufficient data on his mobile phone).

Arun Som, the uncle of Bhupendra, disputed the fact that his nephew had committed suicide. “He told us he had booked a flight ticket from Sharjah to Chandigarh on January 25,” said Arun, by phone from Bhupendra’s hometown, Khera, about 35 kms from Meerut. 

From there, Bhupendra was supposed to travel by taxi for the six-hour journey to his home. But from January 25, onwards, his mobile phone remained out of range. But Arun was not worried. On the seas, for days at a stretch, there would be no network coverage, so Bhupendra could not call home.

At 10.30 am, on January 30, Chief Engineer Sushil Kumar called Bhupendra’s father Suresh Kumar and told him his son had passed away. 

Arun said, “Why did they take so long to inform the family, especially when he had died the previous afternoon? We cannot believe Bhupendra has committed suicide. He was a peaceful and simple boy, and enjoyed life.”   

The parents have been devastated. They have not eaten at all, including Bhupendra’s elder brother, Rajinder, 27, who is a farmer like his father. “The village of 10,000 people, who are predominantly sugarcane farmers, have been deeply distressed by what has happened,” said Arun. 

The family is in touch with the Indian Embassy since they have not received the body. 

“There is something fishy which has happened,” said Arun. 

The ship which used to transport bitumen and asphalt, is at present docked at the Alpha anchorage at Khor Fakkan, near Sharjah. 

Meanwhile, crew members told Sreekumar there have been some unnatural disturbances at night. Doors are being banged and the portholes are being shaken. They fear it is the ghost of Bhupendra. “The crew is going through a lot of stress,” said Sreekumar. “I don’t know how much of this is true, but the weather is calm at Khor Fakkan.”   

The ITF is preparing a report stating that owing to the mental stress caused by the captain’s refusal to release Bhupendra, he committed suicide. So, Prime Tankers is liable to pay compensation to Bhupendra’s family.

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A helping hand

The Indian branch of the UK-based Sailors Society is in touch with Bhupendra's family and providing necessary support to them. In the event of a crisis, seafarers and their families can contact the society’s round-the-clock helpline, 022-48972266. They can receive advice in a variety of languages including Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam and Odia.  

The free helpline is staffed by a team of professional psychologists, chaplains, maritime lawyers and social workers.