KOCHI: The police on Tuesday registered cases against two bookshops in Kochi and seized pirated school textbooks published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) from there. The cases were filed following the complaint of NCERT officials from Bengaluru who are checking the sale of pirated books in Kochi.
The cases were registered against Surya Books located at TD Road in Kochi and Maulavi Books at Padamughal in Kakkanad. According to police, following a tip-off, NCERT officials arrived in Kochi and posing as customers, procured textbooks from various book stalls. Of the books they purchased, the ones from Surya Books and Maulavi Books turned out to be pirated copies.
“NCERT officials visited Surya books on Sunday afternoon and bought textbooks for various classes. The officials found that the textbooks of 10th standard Mathematics, Democratic Politics- II, Social Science and Contemporary India they purchased were pirated copies. Similarly, ninth-standard Economics and Social Science Contemporary books were also found to be fake. We have registered a case for cheating and copyright infringement against the owner of the bookshop. It is being checked whether more pirated books are being sold from the bookstall,” a police officer said.
The officials also procured textbooks from Maulavi books in Padamughal on Sunday evening. From the purchased books, ninth standard Social Science India and the Contemporary World- 1, Social Science Democratic, Economics, Social Science Democratic Politics-1, 10th standard Social Science Democratic Politics-II and Geography textbooks were found to be pirated copies. “Based on the information provided by NCERT officials, we raided the shop and recovered pirated textbooks worth Rs 2 lakh. The case was registered for copyright infringement. Further investigation is being conducted regarding the suppliers of pirated books,” a police officer in Thrikakkara police station said.
According to police, due to a shortage of NCERT textbooks in CBSE schools, pirated textbooks are flooding the market. “It is suspected that textbooks are printed in north Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and New Delhi. As the printing of NCERT textbooks is delayed this year, there is a shortage of books in the market. The book stalls are attracted by high commissions from selling the pirated version. The pirated books lack the watermark used in original books. Also, the size of pirated textbooks varies,” the police officer said.