Thanks to the bilateral agreement on the transfer of sentenced prisoners, struck between the Indian and Sri Lankan governments in June 2010, the first batch of 14 Tamil prisoners from Lanka began arriving at Chennai from Colombo by different flights on Thursday night. These men, who hail from Tamil Nadu, were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy, while transporting contraband to the island nation.

The lure of quick money made these people, who are daily wage workers and fishermen from Rameswaram, Ramanathapuram, Dindigul, Pattukottai and Trichy, take up the perilous journey across the sea. In all, 31 Indian convicts, including six from Kerala, are undergoing sentence in Lanka for 10 to 25 years.

M R Shanmugha Sundaram of K K Nagar in Trichy was held in July 1993 by the Lankan Navy personnel and was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment by the Negombo high court. But sources say Sundaram is not among the 14 eligible prisoners identified for the present transfer.

“While Kerala prisoners returned on Wednesday, the process of exchange of Tamil Nadu prisoners began late, owing to the delay in getting the papers cleared by the Tamil Nadu government and subsequently by the Union ministries of external affairs and home affairs,” a source said.

The Indian high commission in Sri Lanka has made arrangements for the return of convicts, with the latter being given new clothes and footwear. Families of many prisoners are in a state of distress. Fareeda, wife of M Abdullah, who was sentenced in 2003, burst into tears when TOI called her. “I am unable to run the family, and discontinued the studies of my son and daughter,” she said.

Sources said Kerala prisoners returned on Wednesday but TN prisoners’ exchange began late owing to the delay in getting the papers cleared by the state government and subsequently by the Centre. (TNN)