Ahmedabad, Dec. 12: Two persons claiming to be employees of a Mumbai software company were arrested by the Gujarat anti-terrorist squad today after the two could not explain why they had with them a global positioning system device and maps and photographs of two refineries and defence establishments.

Gujarat ATS chief Ajay Tomor said: “We have arrested two persons for violation of the Official Secrets Act. The two had photographed defence organisations, which amounts to violation of the law.”

The two, identified as Mahesh Parab and Anil Jagtap, had been detained at Jamnagar, 300km from Ahmedabad. Jamnagar is home to the refineries of Reliance Petroleum and Essar, an army cantonment, an air force base and the Dwarka temple.

Tomor said they were yet to find out why the two men in their thirties photographed the defence establishments. “We are still interrogating them,” he said.

Jamnagar police had detained Parab and Jagtap on December 6, when they were moving around town in a “suspicious” manner. On Saturday, the two had travelled to Khambaliya town in Jamnagar in a taxi bearing a Mumbai registration number. They were stopped for questioning during a routine check being conducted by the police, who have been on high alert following the Mumbai attacks.

But a search of their vehicle threw up a GPS system, a laptop, three mobile phones, digital maps of Reliance and Essar refineries, photographs of the defence bases and some religious places in the Saurashtra region.

Jamnagar police informed the ATS in Ahmedabad. After questioning them for over five days, the ATS today formally put the duo under arrest.

The two told the ATS they were employees of a software company in Mumbai and were in Jamnagar to survey the region for developing GPS-based software for their clients. Not convinced with their explanation, the ATS registered a case against them, sources said.

They will be taken to Jamnagar tomorrow where they will be produced in a local court. The ATS will seek their remand for interrogation, sources said.