By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
20 Tamil Nadu fishermen, who had been detained in a Sri Lankan prisons returned to their homeland on Tuesday.
On July 29, a country boat belonging to a person named David, which had set sail from the Pamban fishing harbor near Rameswaram, was seized by the Sri Lankan Navy in the Puttalam sea area for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
Nine fishermen—Dikosan, Murugesan, Kalanjiyaraj, Anandan, Balamurugan, Murugadas, Kottasamy, Sakthivel, and Mariappan—were charged with illegally crossing the border and using prohibited fishing nets.
They were subsequently imprisoned in Puttalam by Sri Lankan Navy.
On August 19, the Mannar Court ordered the nine fishermen to pay a fine of 3.5 lakh Sri Lankan currency each (equivalent to ₹1 lakh in Indian value).
After paying the fine, the nine fishermen, along with 11 other Rameswaram trawler fishermen who were arrested in June, July, and August, were released. They departed from the Colombo airport and arrived in Chennai early on Tuesday morning.
Later that same day, Fisheries Department officials brought the 20 fishermen back to Rameswaram in a separate vehicle.
