New Delhi: The Supreme Court has ordered that an amount of Rs 5 lakh each is paid to the nine fishermen who were injured in the Enrica Lexie marine murder case, out of the compensation given to the boat owner.
The order by the bench comprising judges M R Sha and M M Sundares comes on a petition filed by the fishermen contending that they who got injured in the incident too are eligible to receive the compensation.
Following this, the compensation of Tamil Nadu native Freddie John Bosco, the owner of the St Antony’s boat, will come down from Rs 2 crore to Rs 1.5 crore.
The Supreme Court had stayed the handing over of the compensation till the disposal of the petition by the fishermen.
The Supreme Court, in its order on June 15, had directed the Kerala High Court to divide and give the Rs 10 crore compensation to the families of the two fishermen killed by the Italian marines in 2012 and the owner of the ill-fated boat.
The families of Kollam Mudakkara native Jalastine and Thiruvananthapuram Kaliyikkavila native Ajeesh Pinki were given Rs 4 Crore each. The claim was later raised on Rs 2 crore granted to the boat owner. The nine fishermen argued for the provision of an equal share of Rs 20 lakh each for them and the boat owner from the amount of Rs 2 crore, but the court didn’t allow this.
The incident concerns to the killing of two Indian fishermen and injuring of nine others on board an Indian vessel ‘St Antony’ off the coast of Kerala on February 15, 2012. It is alleged that two Italian marines aboard the Enrica Lexie, an oil tanker flying the Italian flag, fired at the Indian vessel.
