The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) authorities have arrested four Indian fishermen from the district who had gone to Bahrain for contract fishing and allegedly entered the Saudi waters while fishing on the high seas.
P. Selvi, wife of S. Panchanathan, one of the arrested fishermen, submitted a petition to Collector S. Natarajan here on Monday, requesting him to take up the issue with the State government and secure the release of her husband.
She said her husband who had been on contract fishing in Bahrain for about 25 years, ventured into the sea for fishing on February 6 along with three other fishermen from the district Kannan (35), Murugesan (27) and Suresh (25) but they were arrested by the Saudi authorities on a charge of poaching.
A court in the KSA awarded one-year imprisonment to Panchanathan, who was the captain of the fishing vessel, and six months’ imprisonment each to the three others, besides levying a fine of 1,000 Bahrain Dinars on each.
She said on a representation from the fishermen, the Indian Embassy in Bahrain contacted their employer who offered to pay the fine. The Embassy suggested that the fishermen could follow up the case directly with the employer.
The employer spoke to the fishermen in jail and promised to secure their release after paying the fine, but there had been no development in the last four months, she said, and sought the intervention of the district administration. As the arrested fishermen were the sole breadwinners, the families were put to untold sufferings, she said.
2016, The Hindu