As curtain comes down on fishermen shooting case, Kerala cops content with its efforts
KOCHI: On February 17, 2012, noon, then City Police Commissioner M R Ajith Kumar received a message from the state police headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram that a detailed probe should be carried out to nab those involved in shooting down the two Kerala fishermen from Italian vessel Enrica Lexie, which was being escorted to Kochi Port by the Navy and Coast Guard.
The officer knew that the task was huge as the incident had already become a major diplomatic tussle between Italy and India after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Rome’s envoy to New Delhi, Giacomo Sanfelice di Monteforte, to register its strong protest at the turn of events. Moreover, none of the officers or national agencies knew the laws or procedures to be followed in the case, as the accused were Italian Naval officers on board the Italian- flagged vessel, which Italy claimed was in international waters at the time of the incident. Now, nine years after the incident, with the Supreme Court agreeing to end all proceedings against the Italian marines in India after Italy deposited K10 crore as compensation for the victims, the officer is content at the efforts taken by the Kerala Police in proving the crime and delivering justice to families of the dead fishermen.
“It was a team effort as many officers had to work hard to solve the crime. We were clueless on how to go about the case as it was for the first time in the country’s history that an incident of this sort had occurred. Ignoring all jurisdictional confusion, we decided to treat it as homicide and identify the culprits. The first major challenge was the language barrier.
It was really hard for us to convince them about the procedures. Above all, the accused were Italian marines on duty on board an Italian vessel,” the officer said. It took over 20 hours for the police team to convince the Italians onboard the vessel to allow conduct evidence collection on it. “Things weren’t easy as each step of evidence collection required clearance from various levels. It’s the valiant effort taken by the Kerala Police in proving the crime that helped India secure a favourable verdict from the various courts,” the officer added.