Indian students Vikas Balwan and Praveen Nair at the Mombasa Court. They were acquitted of charges of drug trafficking. [Photo/the-star.co.ke]
A Mombasa Court on Thursday acquitted two Indians accused of trafficking narcotic drugs on a vessel which was blown up by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2014.Ten other crew members will, however, answer to charges of drug trafficking after the court ruled that they have a case to answer.Mombasa chief magistrate Julius Nang'ea acquitted the two Indians, Vikas Balwan and Praveen Nair on grounds that they were not part of the crew.Magistrate Nang’ea said the evidence produced by the state could not link the two Indians to the crimes since they were just trainees who had no control of the vessel, adding that a letter produced by the Indian ambassador's office had proven that the two were students at an Indian university.The other accused persons, Yousuf Yakoob, Yaqoob Ibrahim, Saleem Muhammad, Bhatti Ghafoor, Baksh Moula, Pak Abdolghaffar, and Muhammad Saleh will be charged alongside three foreigners, Maur Bwanamaka, Mohamed Osman and Khalid Agil.They are being accused of allegedly trafficking 377 kilos of heroin worth Sh1.3 billion on MV Darya following their arrest in July 2014.The accused persons through their lawyer had filed an application seeking the court to throw out the case on grounds that it does not have jurisdiction to hear the matter, arguing that the crimes were committed at the deep sea and not Kenyan waters.Magistrate Nang’ea, however, dismissed the application and directed the accused persons to be remanded pending the next case hearing.