The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has arrested seven people with five banned frequency hopping enabled electronic walkie-talkie sets at Rupaidiha on the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district, an official on Sunday said.
The seven apprehended were handed over to police, he said.
Police registered a case against those arrested under sections of the Telecommunication Act, Indian Telegraph Act and Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act on the complaint of a SSB officer.
The arrested suspects, who are residents of Maharashtra's Pune and Thane, and Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, Bijnor and Kushinagar districts, have been sent to jail.
The SSB said that the arrested returned after meeting the officials of Islamic Union of Nepal, an organisation based in that country, which receives funding from the Pakistani agencies.
"During checking by the SSB at Rupaidiha border on the evening of June 27, seven people travelling in an SUV from Nepal were stopped. Five banned frequency hopping enabled electronic walkie-talkie sets were recovered from their possession," 42nd Battalion Commandant Ganga Singh Udawat told PTI.
"The use of frequency hopping enabled sets is prohibited in India without a license. In this technology, the frequency keeps changing continuously during the conversation, which makes it extremely difficult to intercept," he said.
Udawat said that after finding suspicious walkie-talkies, all were questioned by various security agencies.
These people could not give any valid reason for taking the banned frequency hopping enabled walkie-talkies to Nepal, he added.
It came to light during interrogation that one of the arrested persons, identified as Mohammad Muslim, a resident of Pune, used to live in Matera area of Bahraich earlier, said the official and added that he settled in Pune around 15-20 years ago to do catering business.
"Mohammad Muslim came to Bahraich on June 24 for his daughter's wedding. On June 26, Mohammad Muslim went to the neighboring country Nepal with his companions Bilal Abdul Rehman Sheikh and Munir Yusuf Sheikh (from Pune in Maharashtra), Temeshwar Bhondve (from Thane in Maharashtra), Achalesh Kumar (Bijnor, UP), Shankar Pandey (Kushinagar, UP) and Changur Ahmed (Bahraich)," the commandant said.
"In Nepal, they met a person named Naseem Sheikh, all of them stayed at his house for one night. Naseem Sheikh is associated with an organization called Islamic Sangh of Nepal which is funded by Pakistani agencies," he added.
"In view of all this, we consider this incident as a suspicious security threat and a case has been registered against all the seven persons under the Telecommunication Act 2023, Indian Telegraph Act 1885 and Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act 1933 at Rupaidiha Police Station on June 28," Udawat said.
"The accused were handed over to police and sent to jail," he added.
The commandant further said all aspects of this incident are being investigated.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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