Inspection of Italian ship Enrica Lexie underway

The Kerala Police accompanied by an Italian team with two experts began searching the Italian ship Enrica Lexie today for the weapons allegedly used by the two naval guards in the shooting of two Indian fishermen on 15 February.

Earlier, the high court issued orders for the arrest of the Italian vessel till Monday.

A Kollam court had earlier this week permitted police to seize the arms allegedly used to fire at the fishermen and also accepted Italy's plea to have its representatives present during the ballistic examination.

The Italian vessel was brought to the Kochi port yesterday.

According to Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, the FIR filed by Kerala Police in the case was 'quite strong' and there was no attempt to weaken it. Rejecting the criticism from certain quarters that the FIR was weak Chandy said it had been prepared after collecting all available evidence (See: FIR against Italian marines, strong, says Kerala CM).

The two naval guards are facing charges of murder of the fishermen who died in firing from the ship off Kollam coast on 15 February. The Italians have maintained that it was a case of mistaken identity with the fishermen on board the boat being mistaken  for pirates.

The police began the search and ballistic examination of weapons on board the oil tanker Enrica Lexie in the presence of Italian experts to identify the fire arms used in the shooting by the two naval guards Latore  Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone .