The Indian authority informed that the mechanised boat carried the Sri Lankan flag and registration number. The steering wheel was missing and there was a hole in the cabin. It had a cold storage unit, bedding and crumbs of food strewn on the deck. The local fishermen of Indian coast assumed that their Sri Lankan counterparts must have abandoned the vessel after it developed a snag, probably due to the entanglement of the fishing net in the propellers. The fishermen could not bring the boat to shore and anchored it two km off the coast.
Collector R. Palanisamy and Superintendent of Police A. Amalraj have inspected the spot and made enquiries. They told that the boat would be handed over to the Customs authorities. They ruled out the possibility of anyone having travelled in the boat on the sly. After this, a team of 60 policemen led by the Superintendent of Police K.A. Senthil Velan on Thursday conducted a daylong search operation along the coast off Dhanushkodi in connection with the seizure of 3rd Sri Lankan boat, which was found abandoned on Tuesday.
The Indian police force has dug up several sanddune places to find out “suspected” materials, including outboard motor engine of the boat, which was believed to have been buried at an undisclosed destination. They also conducted a house-to-house search at the fishermen huts in Dhanushkodi, Kambibadu and other areas. Velan told that though there was no information about how the Sri Lankan boat arrived and the missing outboard motor engine, the police would continue to closely follow the suspected areas.
