Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu:
Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday arrested 42 fishermen of Rameswaram and Thangachimadam when they were fishing near Katchatheevu, a Fisheries Department official said in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu.
They also seized eight mechanised boats, M Gopinath, Rameswaram Fisheries' Assistant Director, said. A group of fishemen from the two places went for fishing in 715 mechanised boats this morning.
When they were fishing near Katchateevu, the Navy personnel reached there and arrested 42 of them, Mr Gopinath said.
The fishermen and the boats have been taken to Talaimannar, Mr Gopinath said.
The Naval personnel had on June one arrested 33 fishermen from here in two separate incidents and damaged their fishing nets while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, an islet in the Palk Straits ceded to the island nation by India in 1974, and taken to Talaimanner. However, a court in Sri Lanka freed them on June 4 after President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered their release.