New Delhi, Nov. 28: The government is bracing for a sticky situation in the Italian marines case where the National Investigation Agency could demand death for the killing of two Kerala fishermen under a 2002 maritime law.

India has assured Italy that the marines will not be sentenced to death. Now North Block has to take the final call as the NIA, which is ready to file a chargesheet, has sought sanction for prosecution from the Union home ministry.

Sources said the ministry might refer the case to the attorney-general for legal opinion.

Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone are accused of opening fire on a wooden boat carrying 11 unarmed fishermen from aboard the Italian vessel MV Enrica Lexie on February 15 last year, killing Jelestine Valentine and Ajesh Binki.

The police in Kerala and the fishermen had said the firing happened in Indian territorial waters, but Italy claimed it happened in international waters.

The Italian officers, part of a security detachment assigned to protect the merchant vessel from pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean, said they mistook the fishermen for pirates. Both are out on bail but have to report to Chanakyapuri police station here every week.

Earlier this year, the government had handed over the probe to the NIA after the Supreme Court said Kerala police had no jurisdiction to investigate the case and that it was a matter that should be looked into by the Union of India.

If the home ministry grants sanction for prosecution under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act (SUA) of 2002, a case could be made for the death penalty.

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid had, however, told Parliament in March that Delhi had assured Rome that according to Indian jurisprudence, “this case would not fall in the category of matters which attract the death penalty, that is to say the rarest of rare cases”.

It was after this assurance that the marines — who were not being sent back by Rome after a home visit — returned to India.

Delhi had given Lisbon a similar assurance on Abu Salem, saying the underworld don wouldn’t be charged under penal sections that attract the death penalty, before the Mumbai gangster was extradited from Portugal in 2005.

A special CBI court today jailed Salem for seven years in a passport forgery case.

NIA sources said now that the agency was ready for the next step after completing investigations, Khurshid’s assurance conveyed to Parliament would have to be considered.

“We have finished the process of getting the testimony of witnesses through videoconferencing and are ready to file the charge-sheet,” said an NIA official.

The case had been transferred to the NIA in April this year on the premise that the SUA is part of the eight scheduled areas under which the agency can investigate.

A fortnight later, the Centre had argued that the agency was handed the probe only on the basis of the Supreme Court’s observations, not to invoke the maritime law.