India has pledged to put 35 suspected Somali pirates on trial after its navy freed the Navibulgar bulker Ruen at the weekend.
A navy official told Reuters that the gunmen were due to arrive in India on Saturday.
This would mark a departure from the previous policy of freeing vessels and crew, but leaving the disarmed pirates at sea.
The men will be handed over to law enforcement agencies, the official added, but precise charges have not yet been decided.
Indian commandos boarded the 41,600-dwt Ruen (built 2016) and freed 17 seafarers, while arresting the criminal gang on board.
The vessel had been hijacked in December, 450 miles (725 km) east of the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea — the first seizure of a merchant ship by Somali pirates since 2017.
When the ship was hijacked, it had 18 seafarers from Bulgaria, Myanmar and Angola on board. One injured senior officer was released soon after the ship’s capture.
The Ruen pirates will be the first India has prosecuted for a number of years, the official said.
The bulker was spotted moving off the Somali coast on March 14.
The Indian Navy suspected that it was being used as a mother ship to launch smaller skiffs.
A Bangladeshi bulker, the 58,000-dwt Abdullah (built 2015) was hijacked last week in the Indian Ocean. Twenty-three Bangladeshi seafarers remain as hostages on the vessel.
