The wife of Indian merchant navy captain Ajay Pant has called her husband a “scapegoat” after he was arrested in Britain over alleged sanctions violations linked to a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker.Pant, 38, has been in custody in Britain since June after Royal Marines and National Crime Agency officers boarded the sanctioned tanker Smyrtos in the English Channel. He faces charges under UK sanctions regulations that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin on December 15.“My husband just became the scapegoat,” Ritu Pant, 36, told AFP in her first sit-down interview since her husband’s arrest. “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”The Smyrtos was intercepted on June 14 in the first UK-led operation of its kind. The tanker is alleged to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — a network of vessels with opaque ownership and insurance that Moscow is accused of using to circumvent sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.According to MarineTraffic, the vessel sailed from Russia’s Ust-Luga port on June 5, with Egypt’s Port Said listed as its destination. Prosecutors allege Pant had “knowledge of the cargo”, which amounted to around 98,000 tonnes of Russian oil.Pant was denied bail by a London court in July over concerns that he could abscond or receive assistance from Russia to flee. His application to have the charges dismissed is due to be heard on November 12.Ritu said her husband was struggling in custody and recalled their first phone call after his arrest.“He was broken and he was just crying,” she said. “He didn’t know what had happened to him… He just said, ‘I am in jail, please take me out’.”Pant’s lawyer has argued that the captain was “simply following orders” as an employee of the vessel’s owner. Ritu echoed that defence, saying, “The master’s responsibility in any vessel is to just get the cargo safely to its destination.”The case could have wider implications for merchant seafarers, as it is believed to be among the first instances of a European country pursuing criminal sanctions charges against an individual captain over alleged shadow fleet activity rather than focusing solely on the vessel’s owners or operators.Pant’s arrest has also raised concerns among seafarers’ groups about crews being caught in geopolitical disputes without knowing the ownership or sanctions status of the vessels they operate. India has more than 320,000 seafarers, making the case particularly significant for the country’s merchant shipping workforce.
