Filipinos held with satellite phone, sent secret information

Four Philippines nationals, who were on Friday arrested by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) for allegedly using a banned satellite phone to send “secret” messages and photos to other countries from Dhamra port in Orissa’s Bhadrak district were on Saturday granted bail by the Bhadrak judicial magistrate court.

The arrested persons, all members of a Panama-based vessel, were identified as Alajandro Cangellet, Ruel Kalimoso, Roadger Domatikan and Kausul Ramil.

Hearing the bail plea, Chandbali JMFC court granted them bail. The court had on Friday rejected their application. No details were available on the bail conditions by the time this report was filed.

The Filipinos, reports said, were tracked by the Coast Guard on June 16 when the four were on their way to the port. They were reportedly involved in sending secret information to Malaysia and Philippines via satellite phone, which is prohibited at the port, an ICG statement said.

“The vessel, named MV Frontier Triumph, was found using an undeclared and camouflaged ‘Thuraya’ satellite communication set in Indian waters, following which four of the 23 crew members, including the ship’s master Alajandro were arrested,” the ICG said.

Although the agency did not clarify what “secret” messages and photographs the foreigners were sending — it is suspected that since Dhamra Port located in the proximity of APJ Abdul Kalam Island (formerly known as Wheelers Island), a vital missile test-firing installation of DRDO, it is suspected that they could be collecting information on the establishment.

Report said the threat management system at Kolkata picked up unauthorised transmission on June 9. The geographical location of the source was identified and the ICG ships Amogh and Sarojini Naidu, based at Paradip, were diverted to investigate. Frontier Triumph was found anchored at the location and the investigating team found on board banned “Thuraya” satellite communication set.

Usage of Thuraya satellite phones is banned in Indian territorial waters under Section 6 of the Indian Wireless Act and Section 20 of the Indian Telegraph Act.

“Thuraya phones have frequently been used by anti-India terror groups for their activities in Jammu and Kashmir — even the attackers in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack used the same,” the ICG said.

“These phones were banned in India a few years back. What makes them the equipment of preferred choice of terrorists is that they are extremely difficult to be tracked real-time. Besides, getting the call records is another problem area as it would not be easy to find out which country’s satellite are the phones linked to and the servers of the company are located in the UAE,” the ICG said.

“Alajandro, the master of the Panama based vessel Frontier Triumph, had not declared the presence of the ‘Thuraya’ set in the Pre Arrival Notification System (PANS) of the vessel, a mandatory declaration for all boats and ships that intend to enter Indian waters,” the statement said.

The ship was then detained off Dhamra port in Orissa, and an FIR (first information report) was lodged.