He spent 4 days in a Sri Lankan jail

Today: Muthayya Fernandes, a fisherman from Rameswaram, who was imprisoned in Sri Lanka for crossing the International Boundary in search of fish.

I have been going to sea since I was 12. I would go in my father's boat. I went to school till the 2nd standard. After that I did not feel like studying. Now I have my own boat. It is a 360HP mechanised boat.

This year, on 21st February, I was caught by the Sri Lankan authorities for crossing into their waters. We had left for fishing at 7 am in the morning after taking a token from the fisheries department.

We were near Katchatheevu (the island ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974) when the Lankan navy saw us. They said, 'You are in my country, my side of the border.' They spoke to us in Tamil. They asked us for fish. So we slowed down.

Our boat had seven people on board and we were a group of five boats. When we slowed down to give them fish, they boarded our boat. They were armed and arrested us at gun point. It was 5 in the evening. All of us in the five boats were arrested.

The naval authorities handed us over to another boat. That boat took us to the shore in Sri Lanka. We reached there at 7 pm. At 9 pm they gave us food and water. They took away all our possessions and our boats. We spent the night there.

The next morning, at 9 am, we were taken for a medical check-up. At noon the naval authorities took us to a court. The court handed us over to the Lankan police.

The police first took us to Kottaimannar jail and at 7 pm to a jail in Vavuniya.

At Vavuniya, I realised that 54 (Indian) fishermen had been arrested.

We were again given a medical check-up. They gave us a little rice which was only enough to fill a quarter of our stomachs. It was very less. They also gave us a little water.

The next day the IG (inspector general) Prisons met me as the leader of the group. He asked me if we faced any difficulties here. He said he could send us to the Anuradhapura jail if we wanted.

"We have no problems here, we want to stay where you are," I told him. I do not know his name, but he was a Muslim I remember. He spoke to me in Tamil.

IMAGE: Muthayya Fernandes left school to fish on his father's boat and has been a fisherman all his life. Photograph: Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com

On 24th February, 2015, India and Sri Lanka were supposed to hold talks about the problems of fishermen. The officials from our fisheries department were going to talk to officials of the Sri Lankan fisheries department. Our people said release our fishermen and then we will talk.

We were told that we would be released. We were then taken by bus to Kottaimannar court which is 70 kms. away. The court released us. They handed us over to our embassy officials who had come there. The officer in charge was a North Indian lady. I do not know her name.

We were taken to Yalpanam. They fed us very well. The next morning at 9 am they took us to Kankesanthurai harbour. The embassy officials gave us bread, bun, butter and jam for our travel.

At the harbour, our embassy people handed us over to the Sri Lankan navy, who took us to the International Maritime Boundary Line and handed us over to the Indian Coast Guard at 2 pm.

From there it is 64 nautical miles to Mandapam near Rameswaram. The journey takes three hours. They made us sit in the hot sun on the deck for three hours.

The Coast Guard did not even look at us. They treated us as if we were worse than dogs. They did not let us use the toilet. We threatened to start urinating on the deck, but we did not do that. They gave us bread and tea, but we refused saying we cannot eat and drink unless we were allowed to use the toilet.

Till the end of our journey they did not allow us to use the toilet. Once we were close to the shore, our mobile phones started working. We started calling reporters and telling them that they were ill-treating us.