A month seems like a lifetime to Dixit Solanki’s family. They still cannot bring him home, not even his remains.
Solanki, just 32, was one of many young men for whom the sea remains what poet John Masefield said was a wild call that may not be denied. A call he had been answering for years. On March 1, the sea is where he perished and not gently. Dixit Solanki was a Gujarati settled in Mumbai with his family.
A missile (the origin still unknown) tore through his ship 50 nautical miles from the Oman coast.
He was an oiler (one who specialises in oiling machinery) aboard the merchant tanker MT MKD Vyom. The engine room was ravaged. All 21 other crew members survived. Dixit did not, becoming the first Indian casualty to die in the West Asia war.
He was not alone in that fate. As of March 30, eight Indian nationals had lost their lives — and one remained missing — in different incidents at sea in the region since the hostilities began. Three of the eight were reportedly seafarers.
His father Amratlal, 64, and his sister Mitali, 33, have spent the weeks since trying to find out what happened and when. If ever, they can bring him home to bury. No one has given them a straight answer.
And so, on Thursday, they walked into the Bombay High Court. They want his remains back, whatever it takes. They want the forensic and investigation records. They want someone to guarantee that what is left of him is being preserved. The matter is expected to come up for hearing next week.
Answers elude the family
According to reports, the petition lists the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the Directorate General of Shipping, the Ministry of External Affairs, and V Ships India Pvt Ltd, the company that managed the vessel, as respondents.
Amratlal told the court he cannot stop thinking about those final moments, whether his son suffered, whether anyone reached him in time, or whether he was simply left there.
All they want, Amratlal said, is their son back. His remains, the paperwork, some answers, a chance to mourn.
The incident report filed on March 2 says he was initially listed as missing. He was found later near the hull breach and declared dead by the ship’s master. A towing vessel, the Advantis Virgo, came for the tanker. Nobody came for Dixit.
Chilling silence
What followed was weeks of silence dressed up as communication. It was Mitali who kept writing — first to ask about her brother’s condition, then about his body. Between March 4 and March 17, she reportedly received nearly a dozen emails from the company. They all said roughly the same thing. That efforts are underway, that they will keep them informed, with no timeline and no specifics.
On March 18, the company finally told the family that his remains had been retrieved and handed to forensic authorities. Further emails repeated this, but no paperwork followed, no timeline was given. It was only through the Indian Consulate in Dubai that the family eventually learned that skeletal remains had been recovered and were to be handed to Sharjah Police for death certificate formalities.
The petition invokes Article 21 of the Constitution. The argument is simple: dignity does not end when a person dies. The state still owes you something. But right now, the family says, it has delivered nothing.
It also alludes to maritime regulations. Rules that exist for exactly this kind of situation, to make sure a sailor who dies far from home is not reduced to a file that keeps getting passed around. That is precisely what has happened here.
An MEA official, speaking to the media, acknowledged the complexity of the situation. Multiple layers of legal procedure are involved, he said, flight logistics, documentation, formalities on the UAE side.
The Indian consulate and embassy are involved, but the legal papers have to come from UAE authorities, and committing to a date, he said, was not possible.
V Ships, for its part, said the company had done everything within its power and that repatriation remained its top priority.
It has emerged that certain aspects were outside the company’s control. It had to honour local authority guidelines.
The company reportedly declined to share photos and videos. But it claims to be in touch with the family.
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