KOCHI: Ending a three-month ordeal, the crew of MV Mirach, who were detained by the government officials after the ship sank off the Kanyakumari coast in the first week of April, went back home on Wednesday.The Kanyakumari district administration released the seven crew of MV Mirach after the Directorate General (DG) of Shipping issued a communication to the Kanyakumari District Collector to release them. According to a communication issued by Nautical Advisor to the Government of India Captain M M Saggi, "the owners of the vessel have agreed to issue bank guarantee in favour of the Coast Guard in line with the draft agreed with the DirectorateGeneral of Shipping. In view of that the crew can be released.''"The seven members, including captain Vehbi Kara belonging to Turkey and Azerbaijan went back to their home countries on Wednesday morning from Thiruvananthapuram. Out of the total eight crew, one was released earlier after the death of his father. The remaining were released after DG Shipping directed the collector to do so. However, the Habeas Corpus case filed by the sailors' bodies will continue," Manoj Joy of Sailors Helpline, Chennai, said.The Habeas Corpus case will again come up before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday. It was in the first week of April that the Panamaflagged vessel ran aground off Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu while carrying iron ore from Visakhapatnam to Karachi. The crew was kept under detention. However, both the Kanyakumari district administration and the DirectorateGeneral of Shipping had refused to take the responsibility for detaining them, following which the issue reached the court.
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