30 arrested in Punjab with pirated CDs
By IANSTuesday, August 10, 2010
CHANDIGARH - Thirty people have been arrested in Punjab and hundreds of pirated CDs and DVDs seized from them, police said here Tuesday.
On a tip-off from the organisation Indian Music Industry (IMI), police conducted 31 mobile chip anti-piracy raids at several places across the state. Over 21,180 pirated CDs, mostly of new films, were seized during the raids.
The raids were conducted in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Kharar, Barnala, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Patiala, Faridkot, Mohali, Ferozepur, Pathankot and Jagraon, IMI officials said here.
The raids led to the seizure of a massive amount of pirated material, including 35 memory cards, 15,406 pirated CDs, 23 computers, 37 DVD writers, 19 card readers, 36,000 inlay cards and other material used in piracy.
Police recovered titles and MP3s of various hit movies like “Golmaal”, “Singh is King”, “Rajneeti”, “I Hate Luv Stories”, “Prince”, “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani”, “Murder” and several others.
Nearly 18,000 pirated CDs were seized with other material and 30 people were arrested in anti-piracy raids in April and May this year in Punjab.
Punjab police had in March this year also recovered over 5,900 pirated CDs of new films and arrested 21 people in this connection.
IMI officials said the Bollywood film industry was suffering a loss of Rs.6 billion (Rs.600 crore) annually due to piracy. They added that new formats of piracy, like mobile chip piracy, were leading to an estimated loss of another Rs.3 billion (Rs.300 crore).
