Mumbai, Feb. 20 -- The Yellow Gate police have registered a first information report (FIR) against Jugwinder Singh Brar, a Dubai-based Indian national and owner of three "Iran-linked" ships seized by the Indian Coast Guard (IGC) on February 6. Brar has been booked along with eight staff members of the three ships which police suspect were involved in smugglingIranian oil and other illegal activities. Speaking to reporters in Dubai, Brar said his vessels were merely providing essential supplies to other ships in distress far from the Indian coast. "The ships were not engaged in any illicit activity," Singh said, and threatened to file a defamation suit against Indian authorities for seizing his "innocent ships". The three vessels - Stellar Ruby, Asphalt Star and Al Jafzia - were seized by the Coast Guard around 100 nautical miles west of Mumbai. According to the FIR registered on February 15, based on a complaint by an Indian Coast Guard commandant, the Coast Guard began tracking MT Asphalt Star on February 4, and found the vessel was involved in various suspicious activities. . Investigators said MT Asphalt Star waited in Pakistan's Exclusive Economic Zone from January 20-28. During this period, it illegally transferred 30 metric tonne Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to MT Al Jafzia, and 5,473 metric tonne bitumen, used for road construction, to MT Stellar Ruby. MT Stellar Ruby then entered the Karwar Port and offloaded the bitumen using forged protection and indemnity certificates and documents. MT Al Jafzia also used forged documents to seek entry into the Alang Ship Breaking Yard in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. "All three vessels used AIS spoofing to conceal their identity and facilitate these illegal acts. When the staff was questioned after the three ships were seized, they admitted they had turned off their voyage data recorders," an officer familiar with the case said. "We are probing if the ships were carrying sanctioned Iranian oil." AIS spoofing refers to the deliberate falsification of a vessel's transmitted location, identity, or voyage data. Brar and eight staff members of the three ships have been booked under sections 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 340 (forging document or electronic record and using it as genuine) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita; and relevant sections of the Customs Act, 1962, the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the Petroleum Act, 1934, the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply and High Speed Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 1998 and the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The police will soon seek custody of those detained by the Coast Guard, officials said....