Kerala cannot probe fishermen killing: Centre


NEW DELHI: The Central government on Friday said that the Kerala police had no authority to detain the Italian ship 'Enrica Lexie'. The Centre told the Supreme Court that the Kerala Police Station had no jurisdiction to detain the ship or probe the incident as the incident occurred on high seas.
Responding to the Centre's statement, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said, "We took every action after consulting the central government. The incident took place inside our territory. We have all rights to take action."
Sources told CNN-IBN that the Kerala government is not changing its stand and it will decide on further action after consulting legal experts. Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned till April 30.
Earlier, the Italian government on Friday approached the Supreme Court seeking the release of its two navy personnel who were arrested by the Kerala police for the killing of two Indian fishermen. Sources said that they have pleaded that the FIR against the marines should be quashed.
Italy has reportedly offered Rs 1 crore as compensation to the families of the two fishermen who were killed in February this year when two marines on board an Italian ship, 'Enrica Lexie', fired at them, allegedly believing them to be pirates.
The compensation sum was raised to Rs 1 crore after the Defence Secretary of Italy held talks with the ship company and the fishermen's families.
Sources say that the families of the fishermen agreed to an out-of-court settlement. The fishermen's families had moved High Court on Thursday with a petition to transfer the case to the Lok Adalat. The two Italian marines are currently in police custody.

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