Investigations leave boat skipper jobless

Feb 25, 2012 - Gilvester Assary |

Thiruvananthapuram

Tags:

Freddy, the skipper of ill-fated St Antony, is lucky to be alive, but with unpaid debts worth `22 lakh on his boat, life is a big question mark.

Freddy, 30, who saw two of mates on the vessel succumb to Italian bullets on February 15, is struggling to keep his family intact- mother, six siblings, wife and a four-month-old baby. With the boat in police custody, he is just about managing with loans from moneylenders.

But after having seen the cold-blooded murder of Jelestin and Ajeesh Pinku on board, Freddy does not want to use the boat again.

“ It’ll be traumatic for us to ride to sea on St Antony. I hope the authorities will provide us a new boat,’’ he said, adding his other mates on St Antony were also without jobs.

The entire responsibility of the family had fallen on Freddy after his father John Bosco died of heart attack two years ago.

He has to take educate his siblings. Mother Reethammal is worried for the family. But amid turbulence, Freddy’s wife, Little Flower, is a source of strength.

“I am sure the authorities will do whatever it takes to ensure exemplary punishment for the two marines, compensation for families of victims and rehabilitation of others including him,’’ he added.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/129304" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-ecb3ef2c259538409370baad45b1ef56" value="form-ecb3ef2c259538409370baad45b1ef56" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80911244" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>