This story is from August 21, 2019

Radio sets land West Bengal youth in trouble

A youth was picked up from his house in Ghola, North 24-Parganas, around Monday midnight by Barrackpore commissionerate officers on charges of possessing and usage of wireless radio sets without licence.
Radio sets land West Bengal youth in trouble
The seized wireless handsets
KOLKATA: A youth was picked up from his house in Ghola, North 24-Parganas, around Monday midnight by Barrackpore commissionerate officers on charges of possessing and usage of wireless radio sets without licence.
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Two advanced radio handsets were seized from him. Though there were several complaints against the youth, even from central agencies, he was let off with a warning against the use of such equipment in the future.
This was done after his family and friends vouched that he had entered restricted spectra unintentionally.
“This shows how rules are flouted. He is a bike enthusiast and goes on long rides. So he thought of procuring a couple of them to communicate with a friend on the way. His troubles started in Nepal when he somehow got into the bandwidth used by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and other agencies while communicating with the friend. Efforts immediately started to track him,” a friend, who vouched for the youth before the police, said.
Unaware of the trouble he was in, the youth continued with his ways even after returning home. This time, his activities interfered with the spectrum used by the police. On a few occasions, he could be heard chatting with the friend over the high-security spectrum during VIP movement. The youth was finally tracked to his house after a ‘fox hunt’ — a technique used to track a signal using hand-held antennae and other equipment.
“What he has done is a serious security threat. By tapping into high-security bandwidths, he could have inadvertently passed on strategic information to others,” a senior officer said.
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