Bodies of 2 missing fishermen found, 10 days after boats sank off Gujarat’s Amreli coast

The family members of both the missing fishermen reached Navsari on Friday and took possession of the bodies.

“Presently, the cause of the death is due to drowning, as the bodies were in a decomposed state. The viscera and other samples had been taken and sent to FSL for laboratory test,” said Maroli police inspector D J Patel.

Earlier, two bodies were retrieved from the Jafrabad sea coast, two days after three boats with 28 fishermen capsized due to inclement weather. The Coast Guard had rescued 17 fishermen.

According to Navsari police, local fishermen tipped off the Maroli police station about a decomposed body on the sea coast area near Vansi Borsi village on Thursday. A police team reached the spot and took custody of the body, which was sent to the civil hospital in Navsari town for a post-mortem late on Thursday.

Later in the day, local fishermen near Samarpan Ashram Gate spotted another body on Dandi beach in Jalalpore taluka of Navsari district and alerted the police officers, who took custody of the body.

The Navsari police have contacted the Jafrabad Marine Police Station and started the procedure of identifying the bodies.

“The incident took place on August 19, when three boats, Jayshree Tatkalik, Damyanti Navka of Jafrabad, and Murlidhar of Gir Somnath, went out fishing in the sea from Jafrabad. Nine fishermen were travelling in Jayshree, 10 in Damyanti, and 9 in Murlidhar boats. Along with these three boats, there were a few other boats that sailed from Jafrabad for fishing. Due to the bad weather, all three boats, Jayshree, Damyanti, and Murlidhar, capsized,” D S Ishrani, Jafrabad marine police inspector, told The Indian Express.

Five fishermen were rescued from Jayshree, seven from Damyanti, and five from Murlidhar, Ishrani said, adding that fishermen travelling on other boats carried out an operation to rescue 11 fishermen from three boats.

He further added, “The bodies of two fishermen travelling on Jayshree were found around 19 nautical miles on August 21. At the same time, the two other remaining missing fishermen’s bodies were found in the Navsari district on Thursday, and they were from the Jayshree boat. The distance between the incident site and Navsari is approximately 90 nautical miles. Now the search is on to trace the missing fishermen from the Murlidhar and Damyanti boats.”