“Detained at [a] police station most of yesterday til 2 AM. Out on bail (!!!!),” Tina Lewis messaged to me on December 6, 2024. “I’m too f$%&ing drained to clarify proper now,” she stated, however she saved going.
I didn’t know what she was accused of and was a little bit fearful. She confirmed that she was okay.
“That is surreal,” the messages and anger saved coming, that day and the subsequent a number of.
In early December 2024, path runner Tina Lewis was arrested in Goa, India, for carrying a satellite tv for pc GPS system with out permission. Right here, she’s pictured earlier in her go to to India on the Taj Mahal. All pictures courtesy of Tina Lewis.
It took six days for Lewis to get her passport again. Her violation? Possessing a satellite tv for pc GPS system with out permission from Indian authorities.
A Canadian citizen, Lewis, aged 51, lives in Colorado and was the 2012 Leadville 100 Mile winner. An skilled adventurer, she’d been touring alone via India for 2 months, and documenting her journey on social media.
At first she visited the Taj Mahal, proclaiming it with “the second I’ve dreamed of for years! One other 7 Wonders of the World added to my record!” She then obtained off the crushed path and into the mountains of Northern India and later posts had been optimistic too. “Feeling like a princess on the opulent Metropolis Palace, Jaipur, Rajasthan,” she smiled on one submit.
Then she went to Goa, a coastal state in Western India. All the things was nice there too. She loved the seashores, reggae vibes, and Portuguese influences. However whereas touring between the cities of Goa and Kochi, she was detained at Goa Dabolim Worldwide Airport.
Lewis had a Garmin inReach Mini in her carry-on baggage.
The incident made the native information.
And a submit on the native information channel’s social media acquired over 2,000 likes. The feedback had been largely in help of Lewis.
Garmin describes its product as “your go-to connection for sustaining off-the-grid contact. It’s our palm-sized satellite tv for pc communicator for adventures the place measurement and weight matter. Want help? Ship interactive SOS alerts anytime, globally. Irrespective of the place you’re, two-way messaging enables you to hook up with those who matter.”
Lewis defined, “I had the Garmin for tenting and trekking solo. And to make use of when no reception to test in with household to allow them to know I’m secure. As a solo feminine traveler, I feel it’s smart.”
However the security system landed Lewis in bother. Satellite tv for pc telephones are unlawful in India, banned as a part of the Indian Wi-fi Telegraphy Act, 1933, and the Garmin inReach Mini and different comparable gadgets are generally mistaken for satellite tv for pc telephones.
Tina Lewis stated her arrest, detainment, bail, courtroom, lawyer’s charges, and fines in Goa, India, had been intensive.
Whether or not for safety issues, together with issues that they are often tracked by navy authorities, or the potential to intervene with authorities telecommunications, satellite tv for pc telephones are banned in different international locations too, like China, Cuba, and North Korea. Iridium satellite tv for pc telephones specifically aren’t permitted in India and may land unwitting vacationers in bother.
Lewis isn’t the one one to be unaware of the regulation. Arrests look like a near-daily prevalence. A December 9, 2024 article shared {that a} Czech nationwide was arrested at an airport for carrying a Garmin Edge 540 GPS. And on December 10, 2024, it was an American citizen with an precise satellite tv for pc telephone.
Lewis didn’t contain the Canadian embassy, for worry that it might sluggish the method, and he or she didn’t truly go to jail. She benefited from a neighborhood connection that rushed a lawyer to her support, along with the police-appointed lawyer.
“I used to be detained on the police station, being questioned and actually about to go the hospital for a medical examination earlier than jail when my buddy’s lawyer confirmed up,” she defined. “However I spent a number of full days in courtroom.”
She says she spent hundreds in courtroom fines and lawyer charges, and naturally forfeited the Garmin system.
Having simply gotten again her passport, Lewis mirrored, “I’ve taken a couple of days to course of and I don’t need this ruining my journey.” However the six-day occasion left Lewis frightened, discouraged, and feeling violated. It’s a foul spot in an in any other case nice journey and a real appreciation for India.
“This outdated regulation must be challenged at [a] greater courtroom so different vacationers don’t expertise what I, and others, have,” Lewis shared on social media.
Within the meantime, maybe an upside to Lewis’s state of affairs may be schooling for these of us who’re taking our operating adventures to new-to-us places the place using superior communication instruments like these aren’t but authorized. The perfect present recommendation is to test your private home authorities’s web site for info and advisories on touring to your particular vacation spot. We’re wishing Lewis secure travels forward.
Tina Lewis says she spent days in courtroom and paid hundreds in fines and lawyer charges following her arrest in Goa, India, in December 2024.