Arrested with wireless - Nepal citizen held for planting transmitters near border

VIVEK CHHETRI

Dangol in Kurseong on Friday. (Suman Tamang) Darjeeling, March 23: Darjeeling police have arrested a resident of Nepal from the border area of Mirik for illegally installing transmitters and wireless equipment. Given the nature of the crime and the place of operation — the international boundary between India and Nepal — Darjeeling police are consulting the signal wing of the army and the ministry of communication and information technology to understand the motives of Bhola Kishore Dangol alias Kishore Pradhan. Kunal Aggarwal, additional superintendent of police, Darjeeling said: “Acting on a tip-off, we arrested Bhola Kishore Dangol, a resident of Nepal who was in possession of the transmitter and wireless equipment. We have checked the details and have found out that he does not have a valid licence to operate it.” According to Section 3 of the Indian Wireless Telegraph Act, 1933, no person shall possess wireless telegraphy apparatus without a valid licence. The police, however, refused to divulge the number of transmitters and the exact locations where they were planted. But sources said most of the portable transmitters had been placed in houses whose residents were unaware of the legal implications. Dangol, who was arrested on March 13 and remanded in police custody, claims to represent a Hong Kong-based company, Global International Service Pvt Ltd. Sources said he also claimed to represent another Chinese company, Touch Telecom and the Nepal-based Global Digital Network. “We are trying to find out the ulterior motives of Dangol. Members of the wireless monitoring committee under the ministry of communication have already visited Darjeeling. The committee is expected to submit a report in a day or two,” said Aggarwal. Preliminary investigation by the police suggests that Dangol was trying to use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to make international calls. “Use of such technology in an illegal manner causes huge loss of revenue to the government,” said a police official. When the VoIP technology is used illegally to call international numbers (using the Global System for Mobile Communication or GSM), the calls appear to originate from a local mobile phone of that country. The police have seized, a TP link router, Net booster, modem, repeater, power splitter, CPU, laptop and a small and a big antenna from Dangol. Sources said Dangol, who had been operating in the Naxalbari-Mirik area for the past two-and-a-half months would also frequent Darjeeling. The police suspect that the arrested Nepalese citizen had an accomplice in the region helping him in his operation. Dangol has been booked under Section 6 of the Indian Wireless Telegraph Act, 1933, and if found guilty, he can be imprisoned up to three years and slapped a fine. He was produced before the Kurseong additional chief judicial magistrate again today and remanded in police custody for four days.(Telegraph)