Four held for drone-filming Ganga aarti in Varanasi

Police have detained four persons in Varanasi for filming the Ganga aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat with the help of drones (copter-cam) without prior permissions.

The detainees were part of a 16-member team, including six Americans and two Australians. Two of them belonged to New Delhi and the other two to Assam and Haryana. They showed their ID cards, identifying them as employees of a travel TV channel, and claimed that they had done so earlier in Varanasi, Allahabad, Shimla, Manali and Agra without any permission.

The police have recovered two walkie-talkies and a copter-cam besides other items like mobile phones and laptops from them.

Sudhakar Yadav, Superintendent of Police, Varanasi city said, "They were spotted taking videos of Ganga aarti with the help of coptercam on Thursday evening. The use of such equipment without permission is prohibited. We have detained them for questioning and they have been booked for violating the law."

Highly placed sources in the police department said that they had been on alert since April after the Intelligence Bureau input to the state that cam fitted drones (unmanned aerial vehicle) or copter-cams could be used to attack religious sites.

Earlier, Abdul Walid, alias Owais, and Mohamad Fahim, alias Murtaza, who had been arrested from Gorakhhpur on March 26 had told the police about their plan to use drone to carry out terrorist activities. They had recorded video clips of Kashi Vishwanath temple and Gyanvapi Masjid with the help of copter cams in January.

The state government is toying with the idea of declaring ghats as 'no-fly zones'. There are nine towers of 40 feet in the area to keep vigil on anti-social activities. Now there is a proposal to increase the height of these towers. The Varanasi police have also demanded 25 fibre boats from the state home department to keep vigil around river Ganga and river Karmanasha.