February 15, 2012, the unarmed victim aboard the fishing vessel at St Antony were killed without warning, on shoot through the the head, the other in the stomach, with automatic weapon. The two were killed at sea, approximately 20.5 nautical miles of Kerala in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Recently, it has emerged that there was a 14-year-old boy named Pinjin, too, on that boat according to his family. He took his own life on July 2, 2019, as he never recovered from the trauma of that incident.
Prijin was shifted to another fishing boat as its captain Fredy Jhon Bosco, feared that he would be straighten up for child labour.
The family assert to the centre moves through advocate Yash Thomas Munnally claims that from the time of incident Prijin was afraid to venture out to see even to do minor fishing related job, he was so disturbed, he became insomniac and suffered from Nightmare.
Prijin was the sole wage-earner for his family. On July 6, his mother and 7 siblings demanded that Prijin’s posthumous rights as a minor be protected as per international Child Rights Law and the Indian constitution, and that Rs 100 crore compensation be obtained from Italy.
He never received any compensation because, officially, he was never on the boat.
The court said the marines should be immune from prosecution in India, but should face trial in Italy.
Italy has argued that the marines fired on a boat carrying the two Indian fishermen after they had failed to heed warnings to stay away from the MV Enrica Lexie tanker off the coast of the south-western state of Kerala.
Currently, the two marines are in Italy pending a decision from the PCA. After having been detained in India for two and four years, respectively, the two marines were finally released and returned to Italy.
Earlier, Kerala Police also charged the marines under Section 3 of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on the Continental Shelf Act, 2002 (SUA), which attracts the death penalty.
The issue of jurisdiction over the case became a big argument between the two countries. While India maintained that the incident happened in Indian waters and also the fishermen killed were Indian, and hence the case must be tried as per its laws, Italy claimed that the shooting took place outside Indian territorial waters and its marines were on-board the ship with the Italian flag.
On September 28, 2016, the apex court had allowed Latorre to remain in his country till the international arbitral tribunal decided the jurisdictional issue.
The apex court had said all the conditions, which were imposed on the other marine, Salvatore Girone, would be applicable on Latorre as well.
The Italian government had given the families of Jalastine and Ajeesh Binki, who hailed from Kanyakumari, a compensation of one crore rupees each in exchange for withdrawing their petitions in the case. Further, the Kerala government appointed Doramma as a peon in the state collectorate, where she still works to support her two sons.
