Scare after boat with weapons spotted off Maharashtra coast

A boat with three AK-47 rifles and bullets was found off the Raigad coast in Maharashtra on Thursday, officials said adding that there was no security threat.

According to the officials, the crew members of this boat had been rescued in June this year near the Oman coast.

It later drifted and grounded ashore, a Coast Guard official said.

Some locals spotted the boat, having no crew member, in the Shrivardhan area, located more than 190 km from Mumbai, and alerted security agencies.

Raigad Superintendent of Police Ashok Dudhe and other senior officials rushed to the spot and searched the boat.

Three AK-47 rifles and some bullets were found on the boat and the police were conducting further investigation, a police official said.

A Coast Guard official said there is no security threat.

“It is a UK-registered yacht which was sailing from Oman to Europe. It had given a distress call and people onboard were rescued by ships in the vicinity of Muscat on June 26,” the official said.

The yacht also carried some small arms of the AK series, he said.

The arms vendor has been contacted and the serial numbers of the weapons found onboard match the ones missing from the vendor’s inventory, the official said.

“Since a yacht moves slowly, it is permitted to carry small weapons. When the people on board abandoned the boat, they did not carry the weapons with them,” the official said.

Later, the boat drifted and grounded ashore.

The official said the yacht was badly damaged and partly submerged after being battered by the monsoon winds.

(With inputs from agencies)