Italian marines face death in India despite assurances

It will be for the first that the agency will be invoking the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platform on Continental Shelf Act,2002. Section 3 a (i) of the Act says,“If any person causes death to any person shall be punished with death”.

Till now,the two marines,Massimilano Lattore and Salvatore Girone,were facing trial only under Section 302 for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen on February 15,2012.

NIA officials said a decision to change the charges from Section 302 to Section 304,culpable homicide not amounting to murder,will be taken once the probe is concluded. Under this section,convicts get a lower punishment. The agency is yet to file an FIR,after which it will seek access to the marines. Officials will also speak to the victims’ families and eyewitnesses.

The move might result in a diplomatic row between Italy and India as External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid had,in a statement in the Parliament,had said that the marines’ case would not fall under the rarest of the rare category that attracts death penalty.

The Home Ministry took the decision after the Supreme Court ruled that the Kerala government cannot prosecute the marines. The Centre has asked the NIA to complete the probe in two months.

Meanwhile,the government may also inform the SC on Tuesday about the case being handed over to the NIA. It may also tell the court that there is no need to constitute a special court as the NIA has a designated court both in Kerala and Delhi.

On January 18,the SC had said that the marines be shifted to Delhi and kept under the ‘custody’ of the court till the Centre constitutes a special court. Sources say the trial is likely to be conducted at the Patiala House Courts in Delhi.