The Crime Branch-CID of Puducherry is likely to approach the local court to seek sanction for custodial interrogation of two fishermen who were recently picked up in connection with the trafficking of 157 Sri Lankan Tamils seeking asylum in Australia.
The two face charges of arranging the boat in which the large group of asylum-seekers left for the Australian shores from Puducherry on June 13.
The boat, which ran into trouble mid-sea after its fuel tank sprang a leak, was intercepted by an Australian customs vessel on June 29, 16 nautical miles off Christmas Island, which lies in the Indian Ocean off the north-west coast of Australia.
Canberra has been sticking to its guns on its ironclad immigration policy in the face of mounting pressure to deal with the issue on humanitarian grounds and in step with international law that does not permit refugees to be returned their homeland.
Media reports, meanwhile, suggest that the asylum-seekers have been temporarily brought to a detention centre on Australia’s mainland where their identities will be determined by Indian officials.
According to the Puducherry police, 50 of the 157 people on the boat had been living in government-run refugee camps in Tamil Nadu. Another 40 had come more recently from Sri Lanka and found accommodation in a fishing village close to the Keezh Puthupattu refugee camp in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu.
The boat owners — Raja alias Sanjeevi of Kuruchikuppam and A. Manjini of Vambakeerapalayam — were apprehended last week and remanded in judicial custody by a court here.
The preliminary investigation has revealed that they had sold the vessel to Vijian alias Vijayakumar, a refugee and resident of Keezh Puthupattu in Villupuram district for Rs. 17 lakh. Their boat was not capable of ferrying such a large number of travellers.
Also, given the ramped-up surveillance around the coast, police officials maintain that chances are slim of such a large group of people getting away by boat unnoticed.
