Freed five fishermen reach Chennai

Chennai: The five Indian fishermen, saved from the gallows in Colombo by President Mahinda Rajapaksa pardoning them in a drug trafficking case, arrived here late Thursday night and are being taken to their houses in Thangatchimadam near Rameswaram. They were released from the prison in Colombo following the presidential pardon on Wednesday and after spending sometime at the Indian high commission there, flown to Delhi Thursday morning for further debriefing at the Ministry of External Affairs, official sources said.

The fishermen’s families had gone to Trichy airport in the morning believing that the high commission in Colombo would fly the five men to Trichy. The relatives were disappointed when they learnt that they were taken to Delhi from Colombo. Later they headed for Chennai on learning late afternoon that the five men might land here from Delhi.

“I brought along my daughter to greet her father when she lands in Trichy from Colombo.

We are now told that he is being taken to Delhi. I am so tense”, said Lavanya, wife of Emerson, one of the five released fishermen. She was speaking to reporters at Trichy airport before starting for Chennai. Emerson and the others P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet told journalists in Delhi that they were grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Rajapaksa for granting them freedom.