The High Court of Madras has ordered a probe into the alleged firing indulged in by Coast Guard personnel on Tamil fishermen off Rameswaram shores on Monday.

Coast Guard personnel, who intercepted Tamil fishermen who were fishing near Rameswaram coast on Monday (13th November), reportedly inquired with them in Hindi as to what they were doing. Tamil fishermen replied in Tamil but were bluntly told either to reply in Hindi or in English. Fishermen expressed their helplessness as they were fluent neither in Hindi nor English.

This reportedly resulted in firing of rubber bullets by the personnel on fishermen resulting in injuries to Johnson and Pitchai. Advocate Maurya filed a case with the High Court of Madras protesting against the unwarranted and unprovoked firing at fishermen by Coast Guard personnel and requested the Court to take up the issue suo moto.

Taking up his petition, the High Court of Madras has ordered a probe into the incident of firing by the Coast Guard personnel. It may be recalled that Coast Guard had earlier denied that it didn’t fire at the fishermen and that rubber bullets were never used by them.