A year has passed since the gunning down of fisherman K. Britjo, 21, on the night of March 6, while he was fishing on the high seas in the Palk Bay, but the offenders are yet to be identified. His killing created a political uproar with many parties demanding a thorough investigation into the incident.
After registering a First Information Report and completing preliminary investigation, Marine Police of the Coastal Security Group (CSG) handed over the investigation to the district police in April last and since then, there has been no breakthrough in the case.
The police said the only progress in the case was the revelation that the bullet recovered from Britjo’s body was fired from an AK 47. This was established by the forensic sciences department in Chennai. However, a report from Indian Coast Guard (ICG) was awaited, the police said, adding the GPS handset recovered from the fishermen had been handed over to the ICG for analysis.
“We are awaiting ICG report to proceed further in the case,” M. Mahesh, DSP, Rameswaram, who is the investigating officer in the case, told the Hindu on Wednesday.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, while passing an order on a writ petition filed by D. Raju of Naam Tamilar Katchi in November, directed the investigating officer to file the status report within six months.
‘No help to kin’
Fishermen leader P. Sesu Raja said the victim’s family had been left in the lurch by both the governments. When a fishermen leaders met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on March 21, 2017 after the Sri Lankan navy denied its involvement in the shooting, she assured them that the Centre would take all steps to bring the culprits to book, he said.
The State government had promised to bear the educational expenses of Britjo’s brother pursuing engineering course in a private college in Chennai but there had been no help, he said. The Centre also failed to help, he claimed.
