In a new twist to the controversy surrounding the alleged firing by Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnel on Rameswaram fishermen, N.V. Ramarao, Commander of the Mandapam Station of the ICG, has said that they do use the type of 0.22 mm bullet produced by injured fishermen as proof of the alleged attack.
On Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assertion that the bullets allegedly fired at the fishermen were not in use by the Coast Guard, Mr. Ramarao said the Minister might have meant rubber bullets.
He declined to get into details, stating that ICG ship ‘Rani Abbakka’ from Chennai was involved in the alleged incident and he was in charge of hovercrafts. "The Coast Guard does use 0.22 mm bullets, that is very small calibre...its like a small pin used in a very low calibre pistol,” he said.
Asked whether Coast Guard personnel had fired the warning shots on fishermen for not heeding to their warnings, he said: “I cannot deny nor I can say this happened because it is not our ship based here. I cannot verify.”
A day after the alleged firing on November 13, the ICG, in a statement from Chennai , said that “no fishermen have been fired upon by any CG ship in the Palk Bay.”
However, on returning to the shore on November 14, the fishermen produced an aluminium bullet . The doctor at the Rameswaram government hospital, who treated the fishermen, also certified that the wounds suffered by the two fishermen were “gunshot injuries”.
The fishermen handed over the bullet to the Marine Police of the Coastal Security Group after it filed an FIR.
