Enrica Lexie and Kerala Mess

Supreme court should have asked the courts why did they allow the fishermen's families to be a party to the case at all. It is a criminal case between State of Kerala and the Italian marines who allegedly shot and killed two fishermen. Again the agreement is  one between the fishermen's families and the Italian government that they will not file any civil suite to get any compensation in case the marines are found guilty. Its legality or illegality is not an issue as it has no connection to the criminal case. Further the Italian Government has told that the payment was only a goodwill gesture. Suppose the Italian Church has given some money to the fishermen on compassionate ground can anyone object to it. It is not proper to blame the poor families if they accepted any money. They would have to wait for years and years to get any compensation from the court if the marines were found guilty of the crime they are accused of. And if no guilt could be established then no money. Now at least they got a decent money the income from which will help them to lead a decent life. And this payment can in no way affect the trial of the marines. The families are in no way connected with the case as they are not witness or anything of that sort. But the case with Freddy the owner of the boat is different. He filed a civil suite against the owners of the ship Enrica Lexie for compensation for the damages happened to his boat St.Antony due to  the shooting. He asked for 72 lakhs and got 17 lakhs and happily signed that he is withdrawing the civil suite. Who will not be happy to get 17 lakhs for a few bullet holes and few scratches on the boat which could be set right with some 5,000 or so. He was so overjoyed and in his enthusiasm told some plain truth much against what the had told to the police. That the boat was driven by Valentine, one of those killed and he does not have a license to drive the boat. Also that there were flashes from the ship and warning shots and still Valentine went ahead. This is something the prosecution cannot expect from its star witness. In fact he had turned to be a hostile witness. So prosecution is changing tack and now want to file charges as per Suppression of Unlawful Activities Act of Maritime Law which has more teeth. Like our former TADA,POTA et al. It will be interesting to see how Government of Kerala wriggle out of this mess and get the marines convicted. Yeh to izzat ki savaal hai. It is a matter of prestige for Kerala Government.