The port trust official at Bhau Cha Dhaka says, "We have no idea. We have not been told."

At the nearby chaotic and intensely smelly fishing pier, where tonnes of fish from Gujarat are being unloaded in giant heaps -- including about eight sharks that can fetch Rs 27,000 apiece -- boat owners told rediff.com that the Kuber never docked here.

Bhau Cha Dhaka is the only dock in this area where fishing trawlers from Guajarat are allowed to dock. But this trawler, or any similar ones, was not sighted before the terror attack that shook Mumbai.

Boat malik (owner) Jogender Koli owns two boats -- each dock once a week to disgorge, on a good day, Rs 100,000 worth of fish. "There is no way a strange boat can dock here. The Coast Guard or the port trust officials or the Customs officials would have noticed it. Its papers would have to be checked and stamped. Everyone knows each and every boat in this harbour. The flags they fly are also an indication of where they came from. Gujarati boats are quite different from ours -- they are not flat and have white masts," he says.

Says the owner of the fishing fleet, who did not wished to be named, "Every boat has to travel through the butti (a kind of checkpost on the sea) in the Mumbai waters, where they are checked by officials before they can set sail for their chosen dock."

At Bhau Cha Dhaka, over 200 boats from Gujarat dock every day, along with boats from the Ratnagiri area. Owners say that the Kuber was brought here recently by navy officers.

Image: At Bhau Cha Dhaka, the boats from Gujarat dock on the left side and have white cabins.

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