Three of seven fishermen who were arrested earlier in the day in connection with the alleged killing of American Tourist John Allen Chau were taken into police custody on Thursday.
The accused taken in custody will be interrogated in various aspects of the case including the sequence of events, the sea route followed for North Sentinal Island, the location where the victim landed and the place of incidence, the location where John Allen Chau was last seen.
Further, the personal journal of Chau will be analysed afresh accordingly. It will also be ascertained whether the victim had taken the help of the fishermen or others to venture to the North Sentinal Island on an earlier occasion.
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To make the picture clearer, one another police team is being sent to the North Sentinal Island waters.
As the case pertains to the ultra-sensitive tribal group-Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), the police are also taking help of Anthropologists, Academics, Forest department experts etc to guide and assist the police during the investigation of the case.
The deceased was allegedly killed in North Sentinel Island of Andaman which is home to the Sentinelese, a native tribe which is completely against outsiders' intervention in their life.
"On the basis of the information received by an email of the US Consulate, Chennai on 19 November, the Andaman and Nicobar police immediately lodged a missing report. The police have apprehended seven people who supported John Allen Chau and actively facilitated him to go to north Sentinelese Island," said Andaman and Nicobar Director General of Police Deependra Pathak.
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Two cases have been registered in the connection.
According to the report, Chau had hired a fishing dinghy from the Chidiyatapu area and reached close to the island on November 16, from where he travelled in his own canoe. He had made a failed attempt on November 14 as well.
While his body had been spotted by fishermen, it has not been retrieved yet, the sources said.
Till recently, the North Sentinel Island was out of bounds for visitors. In a major step earlier this year, the government excluded this island and 28 others in the Union Territory from the Restricted Area Permit (RAP) regime till December 31, 2022.
(With inputs from agencies)
