Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Cybercrime police, on September 29, busted a movie piracy network, arrested five individuals and issued notices to five others for aiding and abetting the illegal operation.
The operation followed complaints from the Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) in June, alleging piracy of films ‘Single’ and ‘HIT: The Third Case’ on the very day of release.
The arrested suspects have been identified as Ashwani Kumar, 21, from Bihar; Cyril Infant Raj Amaladoss, 32, from Tamil Nadu; Jana Kiran Kumar, 29, from Hyderabad; Sudhakaran, 31, from Tamil Nadu and Arsalan Ahmed, 23, from Goa.
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The police seized multiple laptops, CPUs, tablets, hard disks, mobiles, pen drives, web cams, and other electronic equipment.
The piracy network was said to be operated through two primary methods, the cam-recording in theatres and hacking studio and digital media servers, which were distributed via torrent websites, illegal platforms and Telegram, often sponsored by online gaming and betting operators. The payments were said to be made using cryptocurrencies to maintain obscurity.
The network was involved in pirating and distributing newly released Telugu films, causing significant financial losses to the Indian film industry, which suffered an estimated Rs 22,400 crore loss due to piracy in 2023.
The police registered two cases under multiple sections of the IT Act, Copyright Act, and Cinematograph Act.
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