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Udupi : Janata Dal Secular candidate and former Minister said on Saturday that he would move the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the capsize the fishing vessel Suvarna Tribhuja and compensation for the families of the seven missing fishermen crew if the Indian Navy does not pay the compensation.

Addressing a media persons during the press meet held at Udupi Press Club here on Saturday, May 4, said that he believed that fishing boat had sunk 33km off Malvan coast after being hit by the Indian Naval ship INS Kochi on December 15, 2018.

Indian Navy should take the responsibilities of pay complete compensation and should pay the entire cost of the fishing vessel and should also provide a minimum compensation of Rs 25 lacs each to the families of the fishermen, he said.

He further said that Navy should also take action against the crew of INS Kochi for failing to report the capsize of Suvarna Tribhuja. If these demands were not met, he would move the Supreme Court. He had already demanded a judicial probe by a retired Supreme Court Judge, he said.

He alleges that even though BJP and Union government knew about the cause of the missing of boat and fishermen. I have all the required documents and Pramod released all documents in relate to searching process of missing boat.

He said Raghpathy Bhat is using the issue for his political gain prior to the election. He is doing drama to gain the trust from the fishermen communities. Navy has misled the direction of Sitharaman knew the truth, why did she hide the fact? They had fear that the fishermen community would turn against them and therefore they took their own time to disclose what happened to the missing boat and fishermen, he said.

Pramod said that credible sources have confirmed that 3 to 4 corpses were found floating in the sea near Maharastra. The all issue was covered up and the naval forces from INS Kochi should take up the responsibility.

He said he visited Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and held talks with him regarding the mystery of missing boat. I had requested the state government to release Rs 10 lac to each of the fisherman’s family even though earlier the compensation would be Rs 6 lacs.

Sathish Amin Padukere, Yathish Karkera, Janardhan Bhandarkar, Yogish Shetty of JDS, Bhaskar Rao Kidiyoor Congress Spokesman and others were present during the press meet.