Dec 13 2008

Two Cartographers Arrested in India

Published by Roger Hart at 12:30 pm under Digital Maps, Privacy Issues

T wo cartographers mapping the Saurashtra region of India with GPS devices have been arrested, the Times of India reports. The two were reportedly gathering data and images for mobile phone and PND applications. They were arrested by the State of Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad for violating the Official Secret Act.

More from the Times:

Mahesh Parab and Anil Jagtap, residents of Ulhasnagar in Thane, Maharashtra , were first detained by Jamnagar police on December 6, when some denizens spotted them, moving around suspiciously near Khambalia.

“They had video clippings of prohibited areas like the Jamnagar airport and airforce base. The clippings were recovered from their laptop and digital camera. Mahesh and Anil have been booked under Section 2(8) of the Official Secrets Act, 1923,” said senior officials of ATS.

The suspicions of residents by was reportedly aroused by the GPS receiver mounted on top of the cartography team’s car. The team was employed by Biond Software Ltd., a mapping firm in Dombivali.

The arrests occured December 6, shortly after the attacks in Mumbai. The state of Gujarat shares a border with Pakistan which reports indicate was the origin of the Mumbai terrorists.

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4 Responses to “Two Cartographers Arrested in India”

  1. Mappers Arrested in India « thinkwhereon 15 Dec 2008 at 9:06 am

    [...] sigh, terrorism So, we mocked the UK government when they said that mappers were terrorists, but as Geocarta writes, two people in India, making a map with their GPS device have been arrested for this [...]

  2. Timon 15 Dec 2008 at 9:32 am

    Apparently, the company they were working for was collecting data for Nokia - which I assume would mean Navteq.

  3. Roger Harton 15 Dec 2008 at 10:33 am

    Tim: Thanks for the update.

  4. [...] we mocked the UK government when they said that mappers were terrorists, but as Geocarta writes, two people in India, making a map with their GPS device have been arrested for this [...]

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