Fishermen assaulted, looted mid-sea off Udupi coast

A group of 15-20 fishermen who arrived in a purse seine boat allegedly looted fish, mobile phones of the labourers on board of a trawl boat and assaulted fishermen in mid sea, around 10 nautical miles away from Kaup Light House of Udupi district on January 30 at 5 am.

Udupi: A group of 15-20 fishermen who arrived in a purse seine boat allegedly looted fish and mobile phones of the labourers on board of a trawl boat and assaulted the fishermen mid-sea, around 10 nautical miles away from Kaup Light House of Udupi district on January 30 at 5 am.

Five fishermen identified to be Parvathaiah, Kondaiah, Raguramaiah, Shivaraj and Sheenu— of a trawl boat were injured after another group of fishermen who came in a purse seine boat allegedly assaulted them.

In a complaint to Kaup police, complainant Mahammed Mustafa Basha (43) from Bunder in Mangaluru said that he owned 'Mirash- II IND-KA01-MM-2497' registered trawl boat. The boat had left for deep sea fishing on January 27 with fishermen Parvathaiah, Kondaiah, Raghuramaiah, Shivaraj, K Sheenu, Elumale, Chikkodi, and Raju— all from Andhra Pradesh on board from Mangaluru fisheries port.

In his complaint, Basha said that the incident occurred when they were returning to Mangaluru with a fish catch. When the trawl boat was situated 10 nautical miles away from Kaup Light House, a purse seine boat named 'Hanuma Jyothi' with 15 to 20 men on boat approached them. Later, seven to eight men from the purse seine boat allegedly entered Basha's trawl boat and took away fish boxes and loaded it to their boat.

Basha has further alleged in the complaint that fishermen identified as Sheenu and Raghuramaiah were allegedly taken away in a traditional boat by about seven members. Later, those in the purse seine boat assaulted six members who were on trawl boat. In the meantime, the two fishermen who were taken away were brought back to the trawl boat.

The complaint mentioned that the miscreants escaped with four mobile phones and 12 boxes of fish worth Rs two lakh. Kaup police have registered a case under IPC sections 395, 397, 323, 324, 326 and 149 and an investigation is in progress.