Pay Rs 5-L compensation to Kuber crew member's widow: HC tells Guj govt

The Gujarat High Court asked the state government to pay by October 25 a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the widow of a crew member of fishing trawler 'MV Kuber' that was hijacked by terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Justice B N Karia, in his interim order passed on Tuesday, directed the government to pay Rs 5 lakh to Jashiben, whose husband Rameshbhai Bambhania and four other fishermen were killed on MV Kuber in 2008 by Ajmal Kasab and other Pakistani terrorists, who hijacked the trawler in the Arabian Sea and used it to reach Mumbai.

The body of MV Kuber's captain, Amarsinh Solanki, was found on the boat, while bodies of four others, including Bambhania, were missing.

The court asked the government to pay the amount from the Chief Minister's Fund if there is no contingency fund to pay the compensation under a central government scheme, as told by the government pleader, and reimburse the fund to the CM Fund whenever it is available.

The court also said that it will see whether the directions have been complied with on October 25.

The court said that the petitioner, Jashiben, should be paid under the 'Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims/Family of Victims of Terrorist/Communal/LWE Violence and CrossBorder Firing and Mine/IEDBlastsonIndian Territory'.

The money should be deposited into her bank account, and if she does not have an account, it should be opened, the court said.

Apart from seeking compensation, Jashiben had also demanded that her husband be declared dead as over seven years have passed after the incident and she should be paid the insurance money.

"The petitioner is the forgotten daughter of India... It has been extremely difficult in the last seven to eight years for the petitioner to survive and sustain and to live with dignity after losing the sole breadwinner," said the petition.

It sought compensation from the Centre under the Central Scheme for Assistance to Civilian Victims of Terrorism, Communalism, Naxal Violence and land from the Gujarat government as per its 2003 resolution.

The petition said that as per media reports, only the family of the captain of the trawler, whose body was found, was paid Rs 5 lakh compensation.

The families of the other four fishermen got no compensation other than Rs 50,000 given by the chief minister as their bodies were never found, it said.