New Delhi:
The wife of Merchant Navy Captain Ashish Kumar, who is believed to have died in a drone attack on an oil tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman at the beginning of the Iran war, has approached the Supreme Court claiming that her husband is alive and is held in illegal captivity by foreign actors. In a habeas corpus writ petition, Kumar’s wife, Anshu, has claimed she has received a ransom call from an international number, demanding Rs 20 Lakh for his release.
Dead or Alive?
Ashish Kumar, 37, from Bettiah in Bihar, was presumed dead after a missile attack on the oil tanker Sky Light near Oman’s Khasab port on March 1. The Indian Embassy in Oman at the time said 10 Indian sailors were aboard the parked vessel when it came under attack and caught fire, in one of the initial casualties in a conflict that has turned the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, into a war zone.
According to the ministry, eight of the crew members were rescued by Omani authorities, but two — Captain Kumar and crew member Dalip — who were in the engine room, remained missing.
On March 4, it was reported that Omani Coast Guards had found a burnt skull and bones in the captain’s room. The embassy at the time said nobody had entered the captain’s room and the remains “most likely” belonged to Captain Kumar.
The Family’s Demand
Kumar’s family has, however, not accepted the conclusion and claims the forensic and DNA testing of the remains with samples provided by the captain’s younger brother yielded a negative match.
Through her petition, his wife has sought directions to the government of India, through the Ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs, to trace, locate and produce Captain Kumar by utilising all available diplomatic, consular and intelligence channels.
According to the plea, the Indian Embassy in Muscat informed the family on May 15, 2026, that the recovered remains did not belong to Captain Ashish Kumar.
The petition describes this as conclusive scientific evidence disproving the earlier assumption of death. The petition also relies on a Biological Technical Examination Report issued by the Directorate General of Search and Criminal Investigation of the Royal Oman Police, which reportedly found no human DNA result from the examined bone fragments.
Apart from the DNA evidence, the petition relies upon electronic evidence to claim that Captain Ashish Kumar remained alive after the attack. It states that on the day of the attack, a WhatsApp message sent by the petitioner was successfully delivered to the captain’s second mobile phone more than three hours after the vessel was struck, indicating that the device survived the incident.
The plea further alleges that on March 4, 2026, the petitioner received ransom calls from international and domestic numbers demanding Rs.20 lakh for Captain Ashish Kumar’s release and claiming that he was alive and in their custody.
