8 months ago
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The Hyderabad Cybercrime Police person dismantled a large-scale movie piracy web by arresting 5 cardinal accused and issuing notices to 5 others successful transportation with the amerciable organisation of copyrighted films.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand said that the racket operated crossed aggregate States. The pack was recovered to beryllium liable for pirating respective large Telugu releases, including HIT: The Third Case, #Single, Kuberaa and Hari Hara Veera Mallu, and uploading them onto notorious websites, said the officer.
The probe began connected June 5, 2025, erstwhile the Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) lodged a ailment that #Single and HIT: The Third Case had been leaked online connected their merchandise days.
Another ailment followed aft Kuberaa was likewise pirated.
Cases were registered nether provisions of the IT Act, Copyright Act and the Cinematograph Act.
During the probe, 5 premier accused were identified and arrested betwixt June and August - who were identified arsenic Ashwani Kumar from Bihar, described arsenic the kingpin who hacked servers of integer media companies to bargain HD movie copies, Cyril Infant Raj from Tamil Nadu, accused of managing piracy websites and earning astir ₹2 crore successful cryptocurrency since 2020, Jana Kiran Kumar from Hyderabad, who allegedly recorded implicit 100 films successful theatres utilizing a concealed mobile phone, Sudhakaran from Erode, who admitted to camcording 35 southbound Indian films, and Arsalan Ahmed, who uploaded pirated films to file-sharing platforms and distributed them done Telegram.
“Piracy is not ‘free content’ but often a bait utilized by cybercriminals to dispersed malware, bargain idiosyncratic data, and transportation retired online frauds,” warned the Commissioner.
The serviceman added that the radical relied connected encrypted Telegram channels, virtual backstage servers based abroad, and cryptocurrency payments to conceal their activities. Pirated contented was promoted by online gaming and betting websites, which financed the web successful speech for advertising. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) assisted investigators by tracking cryptocurrency wallets linked to the racket. Several physics devices, including laptops, hard drives, and mobile phones, were seized.
Mr. Anand described the breakthrough arsenic 1 of the astir important anti-piracy operations successful the country, noting that the racket targeted not lone Telugu cinema but besides Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bollywood and Hollywood films. He urged the movie industry, integer media companies, theatre owners and net work providers to follow stronger safeguards against leaks and camcording.
The Cybercrime Police issued a nationalist advisory reminding citizens that movie piracy is simply a superior transgression offence, punishable with imprisonment of up to 3 years and a good of up to ₹2 lakh.
