"Naval warship INS Angre fired warning shots ahead of the fleeing merchant ship's bow and stopped it. It is being escorted back to Mumbai. It would take at least eight hours for the vessel to reach here," defence spokesperson Manohar Nambiar told PTI.
The joint operation by Navy and Coast Guard followed a police complaint about the Bahamas-flagged merchant ship, Dynamic Striker, fleeing Mumbai port without completing necessary formalities, the spokesperson said.
Initially, efforts to establish contacts with the fleeing ship failed as it had switched off the communication system on board.
According to police, an FIR has been registered for criminal breach of trust by carrier at the Yellow Gate Police Station against the 22 crew members from Ukraine and Russia.
The vessel, with 34,752 metric tonnes of coal on board, arrived at the Mumbai port on October 28 and it was anchored there for unloading, police said.
"The buyer company, Ispat Industries, paid USD 1.7 million in instalments for coal and the last payment was made yesterday," Assistant Inspector Milind Kurde at the Police station said.
The coal was supposed to be unloaded here. However, the vessel left the port without informing anybody following which agents of the buyers complained to police and an alert was sounded, Kurde said.
The ship crew will be questioned once the ship reaches here, he said.