Jalpaiguri (West Bengal): West Bengal Police have arrested three European nationals for possessing 22 satellite phones and not declaring them before the authorities. According to police, the arrested persons are Larf Wadchi from Germany, Beneot Mari from Belgium and Dean Matson from England. Police had detained a 84-member international team in Jalpaiguri District after being alerted by an army team when radar detected the use of satellite phones on February 8.
Superintendent of Police (Jalpaiguri), Kunal Agarwal, said: "They came from Guwahati by a flight. They had declared to the Guwahati custom officials that they were not carrying any satellite equipment. It is concealment of facts. They used it without intimating any authority. As a result, all of them were interrogated yesterday (February 08). Three of the group leaders, who brought the team here, have been taken into custody."
The team consists of 33 French nationals, 10 from Belgium, two from Netherland and one each from Spain, Germany, England and Italy, besides 33 Indians. Defence lawyer Swarup Mandal said: "The allegation against the team which came here to shoot the third part of their documentary film on nature, in Darjeeling and other areas, is that they have used satellite phones."
Police is in touch with the respective high commissions of the European nationals. Jalpaiguri is the bastion of outlawed Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).
