Tamil Nadu Fishermen Detained By Seychelles Authorities Over Trespassing Return Home

Fisheries officials received them in Chennai and sent them to their native villages on Wednesday.

Image For Representation ( Image Source :Pixabay )

Chennai:  Five Kanyakumari fishermen who were detained by Seychelles authorities over trespassing into the territorial water of the foreign country along with 58 other Indian fishermen returned home on Wednesday. The five fishermen were among the last set of people to be released by the island nation.

According to a report on Times of India, three fishing boats--Snabaga Arulappar, Dono and Infant Jesus--with 32 fishermen were held by Seychelles officials on March 7. Later, on March 9, two more fishing boats identified as Vidhya and Vadi Matha with 26 fishermen was secured by the officials. The arrested fishermen were from various parts of Kanyakumari district, one of them was from Kerala and one other person was from Cuddalore. 

Initially, Seychelles authorities released the crew members of the vessels in 10 days but they held the masters of the vessels back for legal proceedings. 

Meanwhile, the five masters of the vessels were Kuklin Kurusaiyah, Antony Christu, Sunil Venislos, Maria Segar and Jerin Raju Sesayan were released by Seychelles only early this week after the completion of the legal proceedings.

On Wednesday, fisheries officials received them in Chennai and sent them to their native villages.

The release comes after the fishermen wrote to President Ramnath Kovind, PM Modi, Union External Affairs Minister and TN CM to bring back the fishermen to the state. The fishermen also said that the boats got drifted to Seychelles (2,700 km from Kochi) due to bad weather.