Captain Sunil James who was released from a Togo jail arrives at the airport in Mumbai
Indian merchant navy captain Sunil James, released after five months in a jail in Togo in western Africa, today arrived in Mumbai to a homecoming weighed down by the tragic death of his baby son Vivaan earlier this month.
"I am relieved to be back home but I have duties to perform as a father, please respect that," Captain James told reporters as he landed in Mumbai.
He also thanked the Indian community in Togo and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for helping to free him. "What happened is in the past. I would like to look at the future," he said.
On December 2, the mariner's 11-month-old son, Vivaan, died of septicemia. The family had refused to perform the infant's last rites till his father had seen him one last time. The baby's body has been kept in a morgue in Mumbai.
Captain James was freed along with another sailor Vijayan, after India's High Commissioner in Ghana, K Jeeva Sagar, met Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe.
They were was arrested by Togo in July on charges of helping pirates who had attacked and looted his ship, MT Ocean Centurion, near the tiny African country that borders Ghana. His family had been making desperate attempts to secure his release since then.
Last week, Captain James' family met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his help in getting the Mumbai sailor freed.
"It was a very sad incident. I am grateful to the officials who worked hard for the release," Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid said.
The sailor's family had accused the Indian government of not stepping in sooner to secure his release.