Delhi takes legal, diplomatic steps to save T.N. fishermen

India believes the verdict is a “miscarriage of justice.”

A day after a Sri Lankan court handed down the death penalty to five Indian fishermen for drug smuggling, the government said it was stepping up efforts to “prove their innocence.”

Sources said Indian envoy to Sri Lanka Yash Sinha told the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister and Defence Minister that India was “concerned over the development.” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said Indian officials met with the lawyers of the five convicts to discuss the case and the appeals process. The Indian fishermen could take their petition to the Court of Appeals and to the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka, adding the verdict was a “miscarriage of justice.”