Nagapattinam: A 49-year-old fisherman from Ramanathapuram district suffered a fatal heart attack while fishing with a group near Point Calimere early Sunday. Sources said that since fishing ban was in force in Ramanathapuram in view of the Prime Minister’s visit, the crew steered the vessel towards Kodiyakarai, from where the body of the fisherman was taken by road to his native village.
The deceased has been identified as A Archis of Thangachimadam in Ramanathapuram district. According to sources, a group of eight people, including Archis, had set out to sea off Pamban in an FRP motorized Vallam boat registered in the name of A Sudhakar of Pamban on January 17. At around 5am on Sunday morning, the group was fishing about 16 nautical miles off Kodiakarai (Point Calimere) when Archis complained of chest pain and discomfort.
Others on board the ship contacted the Indian Coast Guard patrolling a nautical mile away through a transceiver. Responding to the emergency, the Coast Guard took Archis to their ship and treated him. However, he passed away. Realizing that they could not return to Ramanathapuram by sea due to the fishing ban during January 18–21, the group of fishermen headed towards Kodiyakarai and landed around 10 am.
Post-mortem of the body was conducted at Vedaranyam General Hospital and a case of suspicious death was registered at a marine police station in Vedaranyam. After this, Archis’s body was taken to his native village by road.
