Highlights
- Ajay Pant faces sanctions charges carrying a maximum 10-year prison sentence.
- His wife says he was “at the wrong place at the wrong time”.
- His trial is due to begin on December 15 in a case that could affect seafarers working on vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet.
FOR Ritu Pant, the hardest memory is hearing her husband cry from a British jail and ask her to take him home.
Ajay Pant, a 38-year-old Indian captain, has been in custody in Britain since his arrest in June after British commandos boarded the oil tanker Smyrtos in the English Channel.
“He was broken, and he was just crying,” Ritu, 36, told AFP in her first interview since her husband's arrest. “He didn't know what had happened to him... He just said, ‘I am in jail, please take me out’.”
Ritu believes her husband has been made a “scapegoat” in a case that could become an important test of how Britain and other European countries deal with Russia's so-called shadow fleet.
“He was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.
British commandos fast-roped from a helicopter on June 14 to intercept the Smyrtos, which was being captained by Pant.
This photograph taken on August 14, 2026 shows Ritu Pant (L), wife of Indian merchant navy captain Ajay Pant, who remains in custody in Britain over sanctions-related offences linked to an alleged Russian 'shadow fleet' oil tanker, speaking with AFP next to her mother-in-law Deepa Pant at Ramnagar in India's Uttarakhand state. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images)
The vessel is alleged to be part of Russia's shadow fleet — a network of ships with unclear ownership and insurance that is accused of helping Moscow avoid oil sanctions imposed after it invades Ukraine in 2022.
According to MarineTraffic, the Smyrtos left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on June 5 and sailed through the Baltic Sea towards Egypt's Port Said.
But while crossing the English Channel, it was intercepted by British forces.
Then-prime minister Keir Starmer described the operation as a “blow to Russia”. It was the first UK-led operation of its kind.
Pant now faces sanctions offences that carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The prosecution says he was the “master of the ship” and had “knowledge of the cargo”, which amounted to about 98,000 tonnes of oil.
But his lawyer told a court that Pant was “simply following orders” as an employee of the vessel's owner.
His wife said his role was to ensure the cargo reached its destination safely.
“The master's responsibility in any vessel is to just get the cargo safely to its destination,” she said.
A test for seafarers
Pant's case is expected to draw attention well beyond his family and the Smyrtos.
His trial is scheduled to begin on December 15 and could become a key test as European countries increase action against vessels suspected of helping Russia evade sanctions.
It is believed to be the first case in which a European country has brought sanctions-violation charges against a captain rather than focusing on the vessel or its owners.
David Hammond of Human Rights at Sea International said the case could have implications for seafarers working aboard such vessels.
Anwar Sadat of the Indian Society of International Law also said the case raised “complex” legal questions.
Steve Yandell, coordinator of the seafarers' section of the International Transport Workers' Federation, said sailors could find themselves “stuck in the middle” of a dispute between powerful countries.
This photograph taken on August 14, 2026 shows veteran Indian merchant navy captain Sanket Joshi, speaking with AFP at Ramnagar in India's Uttarakhand state, about fellow captain Ajay Pant, who remains in custody in Britain over sanctions-related offences linked to an alleged Russian 'shadow fleet' oil tanker. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP via Getty Images)
Seafarers may not always know that a vessel is carrying sanctioned oil, he said, leaving them at risk of becoming caught up in a wider geopolitical conflict.
India has more than 320,000 seafarers and is a major part of the world's merchant shipping workforce.
Sanket Joshi, a 40-year-old Indian tanker captain, described Pant's arrest as “very alarming”.
A family waiting at home
For Pant's family in Ramnagar, a town in the Himalayan foothills, the case has turned those wider fears into a painful reality.
Just days before his arrest, Pant had written to his wife about the dangers facing sailors after several Indian seafarers were killed at sea around the Strait of Hormuz during the war in the Middle East.
“He said that the sea is becoming very difficult now,” Ritu said. “I was just praying, and telling him that, ‘just be calm, be careful and just keep contacting us’.”
Now she is waiting for the man who left home to work at sea and instead found himself behind bars in Britain.
Pant was the only sailor among the 25-member crew to be charged. Most of the other 24 crew members have since been repatriated. The Smyrtos remains anchored off England's southern coast.
India's foreign ministry said its consular officials had visited Pant to check on his wellbeing.
But for his family, the wait continues.
Pant's mother, Deepa, cried as she made an emotional appeal for her son's return.
“I just want to plead to the government, with folded hands, to get my son back home.”
