CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct Indian Embassy officials in Bahrain and Qatar to take urgent steps to send the body of fisherman Antony Arul Anish (21) shot dead by pirates on August 6.

In a letter to Modi, she said the Indian Embassy should take up this matter with the employer of Anish and ensure that the terminal monetary benefits due him were released to his family without any delay.

The victim, hailing from Enayamputhenthurai village in Kanyakumari district, was a contract labourer with a Qatar-based fishing company. He was fishing in the sea along with five others when pirates attacked them.The fishermen had reportedly left the fishing base in Qatar in the early hours of August 6 and after he was shot at by the pirates, the Bahrain Coast Guard airlifted Anish to a Bahrain Hospital, where he succumbed to injuries. His body is reportedly kept at a hospital in Bahrain.

Pointing out that this poor and innocent fisherman had gone to Qatar and was eking out a meagre livelihood to support his family back home, she said “the family of the deceased fisherman is traumatised by the loss of their sole breadwinner. His sudden death and the tragic circumstances surrounding his death had put his family to great financial and mental hardship.”

The Chief Minister who granted a solatium of  Rs 5 lakh to the family of Anish also conveyed her deep condolences to the bereaved.