Israeli man held with satellite phone at Mumbai airport

 A 23-year-old Israel national was arrested for allegedly possessing a satellite phone, which is banned in India, at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here, a police official said today.

Based on a complaint by the officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Sahar police arrested Tsamret Ido, an ex-Army man from Israel, on Tuesday, she said.After Ido landed at the Mumbai airport, the CISF, during security check, found a satellite phone in his luggage following which he was apprehended and later arrested, the official said.

Ido, who was in India on a tourist visa, was scheduled to go Goa from here through a connecting flight.An offence was



registered against him at the Sahar police station under relevant sections of the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, she said.

The man was yesterday produced before a local court which granted him bail on a surety of Rs 25,000.

According to sources, Ido told the police he was not aware that satellite phones are banned in India.

Notably, the handlers of the 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had apprently used these phones during the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation also issued a circular in 2012 to all airports in the country to detain passengers carrying satellite phones, the police said.