Twenty seven country boat fishermen who were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy on a charge of trespassing into the territorial waters of the island nation in August and and sent to jail, returned home on Tuesday on being deported after suspension of their sentence. After the Lankan navy arrested the fishermen 22 from Nambuthalai in Ramanathapuram district along with their three boats, three from Pudukottai and two from Thanjavur with their one boat on August 10, a magistrate court in Jaffna convicted them under the recently amended Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act, 1996, and Marine Fisheries (Foreign Fishing Vessels Regulation) Act, 1979, and awarded one-year imprisonment. After the State and Central governments took up the issue with the Lankan government through diplomatic channels, the island nation on Tuesday deported them after suspending their sentence for five years. After the fishermen reached Madurai airport on Tuesday evening, E. Kathavarayan, Deputy Director of Fisheries, accompanied them here, sources said. The suspension of the sentence meant that if arrested by the Lankan navy within five years, the fishermen could be straightaway taken to jail without any trial, the sources said. While suspending their sentence, the court ordered nationalisation’ of the four boats, and the boat owners, through their lawyer, challenged the order in the High Court, the sources said. This was the second batch of fishermen to be deported, instead of being repatriated after the Lankan government started invoking the recently amended Acts. The first group of 16 fishermen was deported on July 25 after the authorities suspended their sentences for five years. Still 16 fishermen, including eight from Thoothukudi, remained incarcerated in a jail in Sri Lanka and they were likely to be released soon as they were not arrested under the charge of trespassing into the Lankan waters, officials said.