Israeli man arrested for possessing 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 on Thursday.

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 on Wednesday 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 apparently 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.