Daughter moves Madras HC to bring back father from Sri Lanka

After a woman filed a petition in the Madras High Court claiming that her long-missing father was identified among vagabonds in Sri Lanka through a Youtube video, the HC ordered notice to the Indian Centre and State, the Hindu reported on Tuesday. 

A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and B. Pugalendhi ordered notice to the respondents and adjourned the case till August 14.

The petitioner, Saravanasundari Ramesh of Rameswaram, said her father S. Barathan went missing in 1996 after the boat in which he set sail went missing. The family was informed that the boat had sunk and her father was dead.

She said the family later learned that the owner of the vessel had made a representation to the State government stating that four members of his crew were held captive in Sri Lanka.

In 1998, a communication was received by the owner of the boat that necessary steps were being taken to bring them back.

However, after a lapse of 21 years, in March 2019, one of the family members, while viewing a video on Youtube about an Indian vagabond living in Colombo, identified him to be Barathan.

Claiming the man to be her father, the petitioner sought a direction to the Centre and State to take appropriate steps to bring him back.