Shruti Menon
BBC Reality Check, Delhi
I’ve been tracking the recent movements of Stellar Ruby, one of the US-sanctioned tankers detained by the Indian Coastguard over the weekend.
The tanker is currently docked at the Mumbai port along with two others as India authorities investigate suspected illegal oil smuggling.
Ship tracking site MarineTraffic shows that the Stellar Ruby arrived at the port of Kandla in Gujarat on 1 January from the Gulf. It then remained in the waters off Gujarat for over two weeks, an area close to multiple large oil refineries.
By 17 January, before heading away from the Gujarat coast towards the Gulf, the tanker showed a reduced draught, a measurement of how deep the ship is sitting in the water, suggesting it was lighter than when it arrived and had potentially unloaded some cargo.
Its draught increased again on 21 and 22 January while it was operating near the Gulf of Oman, indicating it may have taken on cargo. The tanker then began heading towards India’s south-west coast.
On 31 January, the tanker approached the Karwar port in Karnataka and switched off its tracking data. When it reappeared on 3 February, its draught had dropped again, suggesting it had offloaded cargo before heading north towards the Mumbai coast where it was detained on 6 February.
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