KOLKATA: A 34-year-old Chinese tourist was arrested in Kolkata and will have to spend the next eight days at the police lock up for allegedly flying a drone while taking photographs of Victoria Memorial – where flying drones are prohibited by order - on Saturday.Li Zhiwei, who had arrived to Kolkata with a tourist visa from Malaysia on Friday night, was visiting Victoria Memoria with two female companions in the afternoon when he was apprehended by CISF personnel guarding the monument. Later he was handed over to Hastings police station and subsequently arrested.“First a CISF personnel spotted the drone flying over the dome of the main monument. He instantly alerted his colleagues who tracked down the Chinese national operating the drone with his iPhone while standing near the pond in the south zone of the garden inside the Victoria complex,” said Jayanta Sengupta, the curator of Victoria Memorial.As per revised regulations announced by the ministry of civil aviation, which are effective from December 2018, flying drones are no longer illegal in India but they cannot be operated around certain “No Drone Zones” like around airports, near international border, Vijay Chowk in Delhi, State Secretariat Complex in state capitals, within 3 km of a military base, strategic locations/vital and military installation, etc.“Victoria Memorial is one of the most important locations in the city with the Eastern Command’s headquarter and the Fort William at a stone’s throw away. Hence, flying drones is strictly prohibited in the area without any special permission. So, when it was found that the man didn’t have any special permission to operate the drone in the area, we arrested him,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Police.Zhiwei was booked under IPC sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 287 (Negligent conduct with respect to machinery) and 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others) along with sections under Aircraft Act and Foreigners Act.On Sunday, he was produced before a Bankshall court, where the magistrate sent him to police custody till March 25. Zhiwei’s counsel pleaded bail claiming he was just a tourist who was casually taking photographs. The magistrate even asked Zhiwei if he had something to say in his defence, to which he said in broken English that he never knew about the rule. “He told the magistrate that he had used the same drone to shoot photographs in Indonesia and Philippines but had no clue about the drones being banned in India,” said Abhijit Das, Zhiwei’s counsel.The state counsel however argued and asked the court to deal the case seriously as it was a matter of national security. “He has violated the Aircraft Act that specifically says that no one can fly an object within 3 km of a military base. It’s an issue of national security and so it has to be dealt seriously,” the counsel said.

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