11 Sri Lankans planning to sail to Canada held in Kerala: Police
Police said two Sri Lankan nationals, who reached Tamil Nadu on tourist visa last week, were found to be missing and Q Branch (a CID wing) followed their phone signals and located them in Kollam and alerted its counterparts. After search police nabbed 11, including two missing from Tamil Nadu.
Kerala police on Monday arrested 11 Sri Lankans from a hotel in Kollam in south Kerala after a tip off from Tamil Nadu police that they were planning to sail to Canada in a fishing boat.
Police said two Sri Lankan nationals, who reached Tamil Nadu on tourist visa last week, were found to be missing and Q Branch (a CID wing) followed their phone signals and located them in Kollam and alerted its counterparts. After search police nabbed 11, including two missing from Tamil Nadu.
The arrested told Kerala police that nine people entered India as refugees and lodged in a rehabilitation centre in Ramanathapuram in southern Tamil Nadu.
During questioning they reportedly told police that they gave ₹2.5 lakh each to an agent called Lakhmana in Colombo so as to ensure their trip to Canada by a shipping boat from the southern coast of India.
A team of Tamil Nadu Q Branch also arrived in the state to question them. “More arrests are likely because arrested got some local help. We have some leads on this,” said Kollam police commissioner Merin Joseph.
Police suspect that they took Kerala coast after heightened vigil along Tamil Nadu coast after economic unrest in Sri Lanka. In July, Sri Lankan navy had arrested 64 people, mostly of Tamil origin, suspected to be attempting to illegally migrate to Australia in a fishing trawler.