Satellite phone seized from US tourist at Jodhpur airport

Jodhpur: An American citizen visiting India was caught with a satellite phone at Jodhpur Airport Friday. He had come to India from America with his group and was traveling from Jodhpur to Delhi. His phone has been confiscated while the tourist was let off after preliminary interrogation who left for his destination.

SHO (Airport) Suresh Chaudhary said that a group of 28 American citizens had arrived at the airport to board a flight to Delhi, scheduled to depart from Jodhpur Airport at 11am Friday.

"During security checks, a satellite phone was found in the luggage of one of the group members, Willie Wei Yang (62). This passenger is originally from China and has been living in the US since 1991.

On the information from the security agency at the airport, officials from CID, police, IB, and other agencies reached airport. During questioning, the passenger stated that he had arrived in India on March 28 with a tour group, landing in Mumbai. From there, they travelled to Udaipur and arrived in Jodhpur on April 2, from where the group was scheduled to travel to Delhi on Friday. The group is scheduled to depart for Hong Kong on April 26.

According to police sources, during questioning, Yang revealed that the use of satellite phones is common in the US and he had no idea that it was illegal to keep it in Inda.

Though, he claimed that he had not used the satellite phone even once since arriving in India, security agencies are yet to verify this claim.

"We have seized the phone and if no discrepancies are found during the investigation, the phone will be returned to him through the embassy," said an official.