5 nabbed on charge of running walkie-talkie business illegally

A team of Rapid Action Battalion on Sunday arrested five persons at various places in capital Dhaka on a charge of running walkie-talkies business illegally.

The arrestees are Mehedi Hasan, 26, Md Sadiq Hasan, 28, Md Faisal, 23, Talibur Rahman, 24, and Md Faruk Hasan, 59.

The RAB-10 battalion in collaboration with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) seized 316 walkie-talkie sets, 117 mobile phones and 5,244 different accessories from their possession.

“The accused have not received any licence or permission for using the walkie-talkie under Section 55 (6) of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act, 2001,” RAB said in a press statement.

In addition, according to Section 57 (3) of the same act, there is a provision to take no objection from BTRC before importing walkie-talkies, but the accused illegally imported and sold the walkie-talkies in violation of it.

The agency said the accused had been importing such equipment with the help of some persons in Chittagong for a long time.

The RAB said the accused confessed that they bought, sold and leased about 1,150 walkie-talkie sets.

According to the instructions issued by the BTRC, the use of black walkie-talkie is strictly prohibited for any non-governmental organisations or individuals.

The estimated market value of the seized equipment is around Tk 57 lakh. Regular cases will be filed against the five, the RAB said.