Fishermen killing: Kerala Police to conduct a search operation of Italian ship

The Kerala Police is expected to conduct a search operation on the Italian merchant vessel Enrica Lexie, which has been anchored in the harbour here in connection with the killing of two Indian fishermen by the ship’s guards in high seas last week.

The Kerala High Court is also expected to take up the petition filed by the two Italian guards seeking the quashing of the FIR filed against them. The two Italian guards -- Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone – have submitted that Kerala Police have no authority to conduct investigation in the case and courts in India have no jurisdiction as the incident occurred beyond its territorial waters.

The marines, suspected to have shot dead the fishermen, took the legal recourse after they were arrested by the state police capping days of hectic negotiations between Indian and Italian officials on the issue of submitting them to Indian authorities.

Italy has been maintaining that the incident occurred outside Indian territorial waters and the marines’ action was taken assuming the fishing vessel to be carrying pirates.

The court has also admitted a petition by the family of one of the deceased fishermen seeking Rs 1 crore compensation and directed the owners of Italian vessel Enrica Lexie to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh.

Meanwhile, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Steffan de Mistura has arrived in Kerala to hold talks with the state government.

Mistura had met his counterpart Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur in New Delhi yesterday to find a way out of the imbroglio India government stood its ground that law will take its course.

Coast Guard: Firing by Italian crew error of judgement

The firing by crew of the Italian merchant vessel that left two Indian fishermen dead was an "error of judgement", the Coast Guard on today said.

The vessel, Enrica Lexie, had not reported the incident. It was the coastal police at Neendakara in Kollam district which reported the incident to the Coast Guard and search operations were launched, Inspector General SPS Basra, Regional Commander of Coast Guard Region (West), told reporters here.

The vessel was in the Indian Exclusive Zone when the incident occurred on Wednesday, he said.

"It was an error of judgement on the part of the vessel", he said, adding, firing on unarmed fishermen was not correct.

"They (Italian vessel) had taken some time to accept the case. FIR has been registered and police was investigating the case," he said when asked about the reported delay in taking action against the erring vessel.

On the explanation by the Italian vessel that they had opened fire suspecting the fishermen to be pirates, he said, "Any incident of piracy has to be immediately reported to the Coast Guard. They have not done it. They informed over two and a half hours later", Basra said.

The Mercantile Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) has done a commendable job, he said.

The Italian ship has stated that they had sighted a "suspicious" boat off Alapuzha on February 15 at about 1600 hours at 2.8 nautical miles closing in.

The boat was "warned" flashing search lights and displaying weapons but it continued the chase and closed in up to 100 metres. The security team of the ship sighted six persons and fired warning shots, it stated.

The crew informed the owners and sent Ship Security Alert System. The master sounded alarm and the boat aborted the chase, it was further stated.

Basra said the Italian ship's version was that after the master sounded alarm, the fishing boat aborted the chase.

Italian warship 'Grecale' contacted the vessel. By 16.30 hours the situation was under control and at about 17.00 hours the alert was called off.

During preliminary interrogation, the vessel confirmed presence of six armed Italian Navy Guards on its board, the Coast Guard said.

Coastguard said the vessel was brought to Kochi anchorage on February 15 at about 22.36 hours and a team consisting of Indian Navy, Coast Guard and police interrogated crew members. A team of Enforcement Directorate had also boarded the vessel.