The Kerala high court on Thursday rejected a plea to stay proceedings against the two Italian marines in last week’s ship firing incident, while the police custody of the two was extended by seven days by a Kollam court.
The high court also issued notices to the Centre and the Kerala government seeking their views on Italy’s plea to quash the FIR against the two marines.
Referring to the humanitarian aspect, the high court asked the petitioners’ counsel: “Why can’t you cooperate with the investigation?” Justice P.S. Gopinathan made the query while hearing the petition by Italian consul-general Giam-paolo Citillio and the two accused.
The high court asked assistant solicitor-general P. Parameshwaran Nair to advise the Centre to work with the Italian authorities to resolve the matter.
Supreme Court lawyer Sunil Dutt, appearing for the petitioners, sought a stay on proceedings against the two marines, which the court rejected. The matter has been posted for Tuesday.
Director-general of prosecution Asaf Ali, opposing the petition, said the incident took place in Indian territorial waters, which was refuted by the petitioners, who said “the incident took place in international waters, and the case cannot be taken up in India”. They held that the Kerala police had “no authority to conduct investigations”.
In Kollam, first class judicial magistrate Doney Thomas Varghese extended the police custody of the two marines — Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone — till March 1.