Social Service Branch (SSB) of Mumbai police seized pirated DVDs and CDs of various movies, collectively worth more than Rs1 crore.
City witnessed the biggest ever film piracy raid late on Saturday night. Social Service Branch (SSB) of Mumbai police seized pirated DVDs and CDs of various movies, collectively worth more than Rs1 crore. Two persons involved in the racket were arrested in the raid in Parel.
Police recovered masterprints of rare foreign movies from them, but had no idea how the two got hold of those prints.
SSB officials said that they were tipped off about movies being pirated on a large scale in a manufacturing unit in Parel. A team of 15 officials, led by Inspector RB Mane of SSB, conducted a raid at Room No. 56/B Nirvanji Chawl, opposite KEM Hospital in Parel.
“When we entered in the room, we saw the duo scanning CDs in computer. They were making pirated CDs, DVDs of hindi and foreign movies. We also seized lots of pornographic DVDs and CDs,” said Mane.
The haul also included inlay cards, blank CDs, DVD writer, DVD player, computer, printer, copier-cum-scanner and a TV set.
The arrested have been identified as Swapnil Krishnakant Achrekar and Ruchik Rajan Ghadiyaali, both aged 32. They were booked under the copyright Act, and were produced before a metropolitan magistrate court on Sunday. They have been remanded in police custody till November 27.
A whiff of Bollywood
Grilled by the cops, the accused have made a stunning revelation - some of Bollywood’s filmmakers were among their customers.
“Achrekar and Ghadiyaali told us that some Bollywood filmmakers used to purchase rare pirated movies from them. They took the CDs and made Hindi version of those movies,” said an SSB official involved in the raid, requesting anonymity. He, however, refused to divulge names of those filmmakers.
The two accused, he added, were allegedly involved in piracy business for more than a year. “They are believed to have dispatched many consignments of pirated movies in the past one year,” said the official. “We are investigating the Bollywood angle, and would surely question the filmmakers named by the two.”
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