Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse pardons Indian fishermen on death row in drugs case: Reports

Sri Lanka President Mahendra Rajapakse pardoned Indian fishermen on death row in drugs case, according to a news channel report. Indian fishermen will be released and return to India, says the report.

The five Indian fishermen — Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet from Tamil Nadu were apprehended in 2011 and were sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court on October 30 for drug trafficking, as per reports. 

The five Indians are among a group of eight people sentenced to death by the high court in Colombo. They were arrested on a boat in the seas off northern Jaffna’s Delft islet, sources said.

India in 2011, had denied that the five are guilty and added that an appeal will be filed in the top court in the island nation.

Indian envoy YK Sinha recently had gone to Sri Lanka to visit the fishermen. PM Narendra Modi had also spoken to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa about the issue resulting in the fishermen being sent back to Indian jail.