Four fishermen from R S Mangalam and Thiruvadanai taluk in Ramanathapuram district are languishing in Kuwait prisons for no fault of theirs, and the Union government should immediately intervene and rescue them safely through diplomatic channels, said M. Karunamoorthy, district secretary of Kadal Tholilalar Sangam, affiliated with CITU, here on Monday. Submitting a memorandum to Collector B. Vishnu Chandran, he said the four fishermen, M. Karthik 22, J. Sesu, 43, M. Chandru, 20, and S. Vinodkumar, 27, were working as casual labourers in Kuwait in 2023.
As they were recruited on a contract basis by a Kuwait boat owner, they went for fishing. About two months later, a Kuwaiti boatman allegedly had narcotic substances in the vessel and during a search by police, the four fishermen were sent to judicial custody. Though the court was informed that the bank accounts of the four fishermen did not show any surplus money, absence of an advocate and inability to understand the local language rendered the fishermen clueless about the consequences, Mr. Karunamoorthy told reporters.
He further said the four fishermen were informed that the Kuwait court would deliver its verdict on May 7. Hence, the Indian government, through its officials in Kuwait, should intervene and render justice to the four fishermen. He also appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to provide ₹2 lakh each to the four families here as they were penniless. By borrowing from private money lenders, the families were meeting their basic needs, he claimed.
The four families, including women and children, who were present at the Collectorate, said they had not been able to talk to their men. “We are afraid that they may be imprisoned under false charges. Our only hope lies in intervention by the government.” The CITU members said they had submitted petitions to Ramanathapuram, Madurai, and Thoothukudi MPs and Thiruvadanai and Ramanathapuram MLAs but they had not got any relief so far and urged them to intervene immediately.