The Home Department is of the view that an inquiry is necessary to establish whether or not the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessel, C-134, had used “disproportionate force” when it fired on a fishing boat, Rishika, off the coast of Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
Two persons, including a fisherman and a young joy rider, were injured in the lethal action.
The ICG vessel had set out from the Vizhinjam harbour on a routine patrol mission at 2 p.m. on January 12. An hour later it spotted Rishika, registration number ALP 3341 off Beemapally.
Rishika was moving at an estimated speed of 12 knots. It “refused” to stop despite hand signals, repeated blasts of horn and calls from the patrol boat’s bullhorn. The C-134 fired two shots from a flare gun, Very pistol, to make Rishika comply.
According to the ICG, Rishika altered course towards C-134 and tried to impede hot pursuit. A marine opened fire on the fishing boat with a 9 mm Indian-made Sterling submachine gun. He fired two warning shots across Rishika’s bow and let loose 13 rounds at her hull.
The police said the fishermen were asleep when the bullets tore into their boat’s flimsy hull. They were fatigued after 10 days of relentless trawling for shrimp and squid.
The boat came to a stop and two armed marines boarded the craft and “secured it”. The police said the man at Rishika’s wheel had no licence to operate and he had panicked on seeing the ICG vessel. Rishika’s licensed skipper had disembarked mid-voyage in Tamil Nadu.
Investigators said on the face of it, Rishika posed no threat to any other vessel or mainland India. Its men were unarmed.
