Kochi | Police have started an inquiry after a message reading "I Love Pakistan" was found written inside a vessel that arrived at Cochin Shipyard here for maintenance, officials said on Thursday.
Kochi City Police Commissioner K Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar told PTI that a complaint had been received from Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) regarding this.
"We are conducting an inquiry following the complaint from CSL. The investigation is going on," he said.
CSL did not respond despite repeated attempts to obtain its response.
Police sources said a case would be registered after the preliminary inquiry is completed.
The writing was noticed around 10 days ago by employees engaged in maintenance work on the vessel, sources said.
According to them, the message appeared to have been etched on an internal wall of the vessel using a sharp object.
The CSL security wing conducted a preliminary inquiry before lodging a formal complaint with the police, sources said.
As part of the inquiry, Ernakulam Town South police have recorded the statements of employees engaged in maintenance work on the vessel, officials said.
Registers and other records are also being examined as part of the probe, they said.
CSL is considered a highly sensitive facility as it builds and maintains major naval assets, including warships and aircraft carriers of the Indian Navy.
In an earlier incident, computer equipment from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant, while under construction at CSL, was stolen and the accused were later arrested by the NIA.
Besides this, persons who had worked at CSL were arrested by various agencies, including the NIA, in espionage cases.
