The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday expressed its displeasure over the delay by the police in even finding out whether Rameswaram fisherman K. Britjo was shot dead, allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, in the Indian territorial waters or beyond the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Palk Bay on March 6.
A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan wondered how long would the police take to find out even the place of occurrence though it was over a month since the incident took place. They raised the question during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition to extradite the Navy personnel involved in the offence.
Replying to it, Special Government Pleader M. Govindan told the court that the GPS device in the fisherman’s boat was sent to IIT Madras with a request to find out the location of the vessel at the time of the incident. “But our request was not considered and the device was returned. Now, we have to send it to some other institution,” he said.
The SGP also said that the local police, which had registered a murder case following the fisherman’s death, had sought for the assistance of the Coast Guard in tracing the location. Intervening during his submission, the judges said that the police could also seek the assistance of the Central government in retrieving the details from the GPS device.
In his submissions, Assistant Solicitor General G.R. Swaminathan said that the Centre was pursuing the matter with the island nation very seriously. He said the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has assured Vice-President Hamid Ansari of conducting a thorough probe in to the firing incident.
The assurance was given when the two leaders discussed the issue on the sidelines of the Summit of Indian Ocean Rim Association in Jakarta last month. “Even today, our Foreign Secretary is in Sri Lanka. It is not an easy task because another country is involved and we don’t have coercive control over them. They are ready to cooperate and we cannot force them beyond an extent,” he said.
Later, the judges adjourned further hearing on the case to June 21 to enable the Centre and the State to report the progress made on the issue.
D. Raju of Naam Tamilar Katchi had filed the PIL petition claiming that though around 600 Indian fishermen had been killed so far on the high seas, none of the accused were ever brought to book and made to face trial.
