NAGERCOIL
Families of two fishermen who are languishing in an Iranian prison along with 13 others after being apprehended by Gulf country’s coast guard on the high seas have appealed to the Central government and the Indian Embassy in Iran to immediately supply medicines to them.
When a team of fishermen from Tamil Nadu – eight from Kanniyakumari, five from Tirunelveli and two from Thoothukudi – who had been hired by Dubai-based trawler owner, were fishing off the Dubai coast on October 22, they were arrested by the Iranian Coast Guard on a charge of trespassing into Iran’s territorial waters.
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After being produced before an Iranian court, they were remanded in judicial custody.
Since two of them, who have been under medication for diabetes and heart ailments for the past few years, are badly in need of medicines, the families have appealed to the Indian Consulate to ensure early supply of medicines to them.
Meanwhile, the families of two fishermen who drowned in the sea after an unidentified ship rammed their boat when they were fishing off the Kerala coast on October 11 submitted petitions to Union Minister of State for Shipping and Finance Pon. Radhakrishnan, Rajya Sabha member Vijayakumar and Collector Sajjansingh R. Chavan on Saturday seeking an increase in compensation from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakh, and steps to trace the ship that caused the accident.
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In the petitions, Reshma Rani, widow of fisherman Antony, and Selva Rani, wife of missing fisherman Remmiyas, said enhanced compensation alone could save their families which had lost their breadwinners.
Antony’s mother Chirstin Mary, a cancer patient, also submitted a petition seeking assistance as she had lost her only son, who was supporting her treatment.