In a statement, Tamil Nadu DGP D Mukherjee said a boat called Maria, which had drifted into Indian waters after developing a technical snag on April 11, was indeed involved in the attack on the fishermen. But, while the six Lankan Tamils who were on board were members of the LTTE’s Sea Tigers, they were not involved in the attack.

The DGP said: “It is learnt that the boat seized by the Indian Coast Guard is the one involved in the firing incident on March 29. But, those involved were from another group belonging to the Sea Tigers Wing of the LTTE which was ferrying cargo on March 29 from the LTTE ship to their camp in Sri Lanka.” The sea tigers had opened fire “as they suspected that the Indian fishermen were spying on their movement.”

Prior to the incident, 12 fishermen from India had been abducted along with their boat by a group of Sea Tigers. “The abducted fishermen are in safe custody of the Tigers in one of their camps.” These fishermen, including 10 from Kanyakumari, one from Tuticorin and one from Kerala, had sailed off on March 4 from Sakthikulangara in Kollam district of Kerala in a boat called Sri Krishna.

On April 11, Indian Coast Guard officials secured six Lankan Tamils, Ravikumar, Bonibass, Robin, Arul Gnanadasan, Arul and Selvakumar from the Maria off the Kanyakumari coast. Six Kanyakumari fishermen who had ‘rescued’ them in their country boats were also questioned. All 12 were later handed over to the local police for interrogation.

Since the boat involved in the Kanyakumari firing was also called Maria, the survivors of the attack were shown the boat and the men for identification. However, they said the boat was not the same one involved in the attack and the men were not their attackers. The Lankan Tamils were remanded to judicial custody and cases registered against them in the Thermal Nagar police station under sections of the Passports Act. Later, they were taken into police custody .”

On April 23, the case was transferred to the state ‘Q’ branch. It was during the interrogation by the ‘Q’ Branch it came to be known that all the six Lankan Tamils belonged to the Sea Tigers. “They and some other groups of Sea Tigers used to smuggle arms and ammunition from a ship belonging to the LTTE in the high seas and fetch them to their camp in Sri Lanka,” the DGP said.