Thoothukudi: A day after he was caught by Indian authorities on high seas trying to enter the country sans valid travel documents, the former vice-president of Maldives, Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor, remained detained on the tugboat by which he had travelled while the various Indian intelligence agencies quizzed him on his intentions and future plans.
Sources said the preliminary probe pointed to the strong possibility of Ahmed Adheeb planning to reach Britain through India so as to seek political asylum there claiming threat to his life from the present Maldivian rulers — as did the former Maldivian president Mohammed Nasheed and his predecessor as Maldivian vice president, Mohammed Jameel Ahmed.
He could have hatched his plan and made the necessary contacts during his recent trip to India along with his wife for treatment of glaucoma, sources said.
But his plans seem to have gone awry as it appears that officials from the Maldivian National Defence Force are on their way to take charge of Adheeb and take him back to his country, where he has been under ‘house arrest’ charged with high corruption and also attempt to have the then President Abdullah Yameen assassinated in 2015.
Ahmed Adheeb, held in ‘house arrest’ after the Maldivian Supreme Court quashed his conviction and jail term for 33 years, reportedly ‘escaped’ from his country on a speed boat and intercepted the tugboat Virgo 9 about 100 nautical miles off the Male coast.
It is said he had also made appropriate arrangements to disembark mid-way before reaching Thoothukudi port zone area. The Thoothukudi police hence were said to have carried out investigation to find out if he had contacted any local fishermen for a boat to ferry him from mid-sea. Even as the interrogation of Adheeb and the nine crew members of the tugboat continued for the second day on the vessel itself on Friday, the sleuths found the Maldivian’s luggage — a travel bag containing his dresses, a copy his passport and US $10,000 — indicating he had plans of reaching UK to seek political asylum.
