Piracy: Cops for thorough investigation

Though a man was arrested for running the business from his house, police officials said only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ h

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Anti-piracy Cell of the State police will go in for a deep probe into the case of seizure of pirated CDs from the Beemapally area. Though a man was arrested for running the business from his house, police officials said only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ has been exposed and a lot of intricacies have to be resolved to crack the case completely.

Speaking to City Express, Anti-piracy Cell DySP S Rafeek said that the case was expected to get solved soon as the investigators were getting fresh inputs from various sources.

"Information is virtually pouring in. This was not the case earlier. That means, our investigation so far has helped us to get over the ‘firewalls’ that have been plugging any perforation of leads,’’ he said.

He also added that the inputs regarding the registration numbers of vehicles that constantly carry the pirated stuff are being collected and the whole procedure will be finished  within a week. Besides, they have also initiated procedures to obtain the IP-address of suspected pirates who are instrumental in downloading movies from the internet.

The open market at Beemapally which sells pirated CDs of fresh Malayalam, English and Tamil films along with pornographic videos has been on the watch list of police for sometime. But the officials have been shying away from entering into a direct conflict with the well-organised shop owners citing law and order problems. The same was expressed by the DySP also.

"The situation can turn worse if we directly raid the shops. So, we have sought the help of the Jama-at committee to plug this issue,” he said. Meanwhile, the police are looking for cementing their cooperation with the Film Producers’ Association. "A meeting would be held with the Producers’ Association on February 6,” an officer said on condition of anonymity.

During the last three months, four major piracy-related cases were filed with the Anti-piracy Cell. Though initial leads pointed towards the functioning of an inter-state network, police could not make any headway.

Another pirated CD haul in Aluva during last June led to the arrest of six people. On further interrogation, they had revealed that the CDs were brought from Beemapally. Soon, another seizure was made from the  Thiruvananthapuram Central railway station, where a bundle of pirated CDs had arrived as parcel from Chennai.

Last week, a person was nabbed from Thampanoor bus station when he was transporting around 300 pirated CDs bought from Beemapally. The subsequent investigation had led to the arrest of Faizal Khan from Beemapally.

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