"I am relieved to be back home but I have duties to
perform as a father, please respect that," Captain James told reporters as
he landed in Mumbai.
He also thanked the Indian community in Togo and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh for helping to free him. "What happened is in the
past. I would like to look at the future," he said.
On December 2, the mariner's 11-month-old son, Vivaan, died
of septicemia. The family had refused to perform the infant's last rites till
his father had seen him one last time. The baby's body has been kept in a
morgue in Mumbai.
Captain James was freed along with another sailor Vijayan,
after India's High Commissioner in Ghana, K Jeeva Sagar, met Togo's President
Faure Gnassingbe.
They were was arrested by Togo in July on charges of helping
pirates who had attacked and looted his ship, MT Ocean Centurion. His family
had been making desperate attempts to secure his release since then.
Last week, Captain James' family met Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to seek his help in getting the Mumbai sailor freed.
"It was a very sad incident. I am grateful to the
officials who worked hard for the release," Minister for External Affairs
Salman Khurshid said.
The sailor's family had accused the Indian government of not
stepping in sooner to secure his release.
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