New Delhi: Three Indian men are on death row in Indonesia for allegedly smuggling 106 kilograms of crystal meth aboard the Legend Aquarius cargo vessel.
Tamil Nadu residents Raju Muthukumaran, Selvadurai Dinakaran and Govindasamy Vimalkandhan were sentenced to death last month by Tanjung Balai Karimun District Court, Indonesia, for violation of narcotics law, reported PTI.
To ensure that the trio can avail of adequate legal aid to appeal the death penalty, the Delhi High Court has directed the Indian Consulate in Indonesia to make necessary arrangements. Acting on a petition filed by the spouses of the convicted Indians, the high court issued notice and instructed the Ministry of External Affairs to pursue the matter at the diplomatic level.
“The Indian Consulate in Indonesia is directed to: (i) take requisite steps for the purpose of ensuring that the convicted Indian nationals are afforded adequate legal representation, and to render appropriate assistance to them for the purpose of pursuing appellate remedies,” the high court ordered.
“The respondent Ministry of External Affairs, Union of India is also directed to pursue the matter at the diplomatic level with the Indonesian government, for the protection of the Indian nationals under applicable international conventions or bilateral agreement/s,” the order added.
In their petition, the spouses said that these men were bread winners who worked at the shipping company in Singapore and they were of limited means. They pointed out the limitation period for following the appellate remedy was very stringent and urged for immediate actions from the Indian side.
The copy of the Indonesian court’s judgement was received on April 29, the court observed, and set May 6 as the date for next hearing.
