MADURAI: Seven Tamil Nadu fishermen were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy on the grounds of trespassing into the territorial waters of Sri Lanka.

A mechanised boat, on which the fishermen sailed, was also seized from them and detained.

“The arrests were made in the early hours of Sunday when those ill-fated fishermen were fishing near Neduntheevu,” sources said.

They set out to sea off Rameswaram on Saturday evening after obtaining permit tokens from the Fisheries Department.

The detained boat bore registration – ‘IND-TN-10-MM-747’, which belongs to Esat Paul, VP Sesuraja, president of the Traditional Indian Fishermen Welfare Association, said.

Those arrested were Arumainayagam Shanmugam (58), Benjamin Ruther (38), Murugan Sakthivel (45), Mariyan Jagatheesh (58), Prajin Dalwin Raj (47), Pandian Edison (51) of Ramanathapuram and Murugaiyan Anbazhagan (47) of Nagapattinam.

Meanwhile, another mechanised boat bearing registration ‘IND-TN-10-MM-1040’, which belonged to Maria Seron, was damaged partially after a patrol vessel of the Sri Lankan Navy hit the rear part of the boat near Neduntheevu, Sesuraja said.

However, seven fishermen on board the trawler escaped unhurt and returned to the shore.

In total, 450 boats ventured into the sea off Rameswaram.