Kerala student flies helicam without nod at Dhanushkodi, held

The group, which was rounded up, told the police that they had come on a tour to shoot a documentary from Thiruvananthapuram. Before being rounded up, the group sat on damaged boats, shot videos and clicked photos. 

Locals, who spotted the helicam, grew suspicious and informed the police. Immediately, a team of the Dhanushkodi police rushed to the spot and seized the helicam. Soon, sleuths from state intelligence, SBCID, and central intelligence, IB, also joined the Dhanushkodi police and began interrogating the group members. The visitors told the police that they were college students from Thiruvananthapuram and had come to Dhanushkodi to shoot a documentary. 

However, police took the documentary director, Gokul, and operator of the helicam, Vivek Vijayan, to Mandapam police station for further inquiries. He was then arrested and remanded. The rest of the group was sent back to their hotel accompanied by a police team. 

Police said that as Dhanushkodi was close to Sri Lanka, operation of helicams was prohibited. Also, the group should have obtained permission from the DGP office at Chennai to carry out such activities, they said. Initially, the team denied shooting videos at the spot. But, the group agreed, after a photo of them shooting a video was shown. 

The group had also used normal cameras and they were also seized. 

Police are keeping a close watch on all activities and movement of visitors in the coastal town as the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi later this month. caption: The crew operating helicam at Dhanushkodi, on Tuesday.