TV crew arrested in India for using sat-phones
February 10, 2014
By Chris Forrester
A visiting crew working on a TV show are amongst 81 people who have been arrested in India for having satellite phones in their possession. The technicians reportedly claimed they were from Echo Line Productions, who were producing a TV reality show called Peking Express.
Peking Express is a long-running TV reality show that’s been on air for 5 seasons. There are Swedish, Italian and German versions, and a French version screened by M6 has been on air for 9 seasons.
The action took place in the small West Bengal town of Chelsa, a well-known tourist resort that’s surrounded by hills, rivers and forests. Elephants and rhinos frequent the region, and the town is in the foothills of the Himalayas.
India’s Business Standard newspaper says three of 84 tourists, including 51 foreigners, were detained for carrying illegal satellite phones, and were arrested and remanded to police custody. The signals from the phones were detected by a nearby radar station and police searched the hotel being used by the visitors and recovered 22 sat-phones.