Chennai, April 12 (BPNS)

AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam (OPS) has deplored a Sri Lankan court reportedly ordering Rs I crore as security for the release of each Indian fisherman from Tamil Nadu arrested in the Island nation.

OPS in a statement on Tuesday said that the order went against justice and that the fishermen and their families are stunned by it.

He said that the fishermen from Tamil Nadu were continuing with the job of fishing even after the Sri Lankan Navy’s arrests and intimidation only for a living and a court ordering such huge security to release the arrested fishermen from Lanka is the height of injustice.

The AIADMK Coordinator said that the fishermen will never be able to pay such a huge amount as security and if they had the means to pay such huge money as security they would not have been in the profession of fishing. The former Chief Minister also said that the fishermen are not able to pay such a huge sum is a stark reality and called upon the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin to intervene in this matter.

He said that the state government would have ascertained whether the fishermen were able to make such payment and added that the government of Tamil Nadu was duty-bound to secure the release of the fishermen at the earliest with the support of the Government of India.