Has the boat case disappeared?

Team Udayavani, Mar 21, 2019, 3:09 AM IST

Lok Sabha election heat

Malpe: The heat of Lok Sabha election is rising and there is tough competition for the seats. Amidst this, the case in connection to the mysterious disappearance of 7 fishermen three months ago, is slowly fading from the memory of the people and in the administrative departments.

But silence encapsulates the houses of the 7 fishermen in Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts. In the backdrop of absolutely no progress in the investigation, the family members only keep shedding tears in remembrance of their loved ones.

On Dec 13^th, deep sea trawler Suvarna Tribhuja left for fishing with a crew of 7 fishermen from Malpe fisheries port and till now, 95 days have passed since their mysterious disappearance. Initially when the fishermen went missing, representatives of the people came in a beeline to visit the families of the victims, provide comfort and leave. But now, everything has stopped.

Confusion due to speculation

First they were presumed to be kidnapped, then they were presumed to be hit by a navy ship. Later, a call was connected to a mobile of the missing fishermen and there was news that the mobile of two fishermen was ringing. Then a boat shaped object was found on the sea bed and after extensive search it turned out only to be a rock. The speculations that they were in Sri Lanka, Dubai only caused more confusion to us, inform the families of the victims.

Give us a clue within the election

We have submitted a request to the district commissioner of Uttara Kannada to gives us a clue within the date for the election. Later we will submit requests to the candidates of both the parties, said Govinda Harikantra, brother of the missing fisherman Laxman from Kumta

“The family members of all the missing fishermen from the Uttara Kannada district are in trouble. Both the houses do not have enough for a meal a day. The representatives of the people have forgotten the poor fishermen. We have though to boycott the elections. We will be submitting a request to the District Commissioner on Friday and if there is no proper response, we have decided to conduct a protest,” warned Ganapati Mangre Karwar, Fishermen leader