CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal intervention in securing the release of four fishermen from Kanyakumari district now languishing in Kish Island prison in Iran.
The Chief Minister, in her letter to the Prime Minister on September 25, said, Sasikumar, Antony, Anthony and Arokiam who were engaged in fishing in Qatar on contract basis, went to sea in a mechanised fishing boat on September 16. In the course of their operations they inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters on September 22, 2014, and were arrested by the Iran Coast Guard.
The CM said, the four fishermen were the sole breadwinners of their families and had gone to Qatar to eke out a humble livelihood. “Their prolonged incarceration will severely affect their families and dependents in India,” she said, and requested the Prime Minister to direct the Embassy of India in Teheran to take legal steps to secure the immediate release of the fishermen.