(MENAFN- Live Mint) In a breakthrough in the piracy network, the cybercrime police of Hyderabad on Monday arrested the alleged mastermind of a piracy network that ran more than 65 mirror websites and is said to have caused massive losses to the Telugu film industry PTI reported.

According to a police release issued on Monday, the accused, Ravi Emandi, was also found diverting lakhs of users from piracy websites to illegal betting platforms-an activity that resulted in large-scale financial exploitation of the public.

Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan on Monday congratulated the Hyderabad city police and observed that the film industry has been suffering from immense loss as piracy gangs upload movies online on the day of their release, despite the 'heavy financial and creative investment' that goes into filmmaking. "Arresting the operator of iBomma and Bappam and shutting down these major piracy websites is a welcome development," said Kalyan in a post on X.

Top film personalities, including actors Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna Akkineni and director S S Rajamouli, met Hyderabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar and appreciated the efforts of the police.

Tollywood producer Daggubati Suresh Babu reacted to the piracy racket busted by Hyderabad Police, saying,“This is a very important development. The arrested individual was one of the major offenders who had been threatening and challenging us, and we finally got him. There are a few more people involved, but we are on the right track. What's more important is that people understand that when they watch content for free, their data is being handed over to a pirate. While your data may be available with official platforms, these are unofficial individuals accessing it, and losing your data can be very very harmful.”

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“The arrest follows a comprehensive investigation into the piracy of several newly released Telugu films, including 'Kantara Chapter 1' and 'Mirai', which were illegally uploaded on a network and its associated extension websites,” the release said.

The Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) had earlier reported that several such websites, along with about 65 associated mirror domains, were illegally uploading and distributing copyrighted Telugu films without authorisation.

These platforms were allegedly hosting newly released theatrical and OTT films in HD quality, causing "massive financial losses to producers, distributors, and exhibitors", it said.

What did the complaint say?

The complaint said the operators frequently changed domains, used Cloudflare for anonymity, and attracted millions of users, resulting in recurring losses to the Telugu film industry.

It sought a full investigation, blocking of the websites, tracing the operators, and legal action.

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During the investigation, police identified three individuals as prime accused, including the alleged mastermind Ravi Emandi. While two were arrested in September, Emandi was arrested two days ago.

ED and CBI would be informed about piracy network: Police

Police Commissioner Sajjanar told reporters that the ED and CBI would be informed about the piracy network in view of its international links. Observing that the accused had obtained data of 50 lakh subscribers, he said the data can be misused for cyber crimes and other crimes, as reported by PTI.

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Referring to the main accused, Ravi, challenging the police in the past to arrest him, Sajjanar said the Telangana police would always make efforts to apprehend those involved in crimes.

Here's what the Police said

Police said Emandi drew on his web-hosting and development skills to launch a piracy website in 2019, which became the starting point for a broader piracy and betting-promotion operation.

The site rapidly grew into one of the most visited piracy platforms, known for its high-quality video streams and attracting close to five million monthly users.

Whenever authorities blocked its primary domains, he allegedly responded by registering new ones and moving the site to overseas hosting providers to stay outside Indian jurisdiction.

Investigators say he even set up physical servers in countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland to keep the pirated streams running uninterrupted, making it extremely difficult for law enforcement agencies to trace him.

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He also allegedly kept backup movie files on external hard drives, allowing him to bring new domains online quickly whenever existing ones were taken down.

Police said they recovered around 21,000 films from his possession, ranging from Hollywood classics like 'The Godfather' (1972) to new Telugu releases.

For revenue generation, Emandi allegedly collaborated with online gaming and betting operators and diverted traffic from his site to these platforms.

To avoid Indian law, he also renounced his Indian citizenship and obtained citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, police said.

After analysing technical data from domain service providers, internet service providers, and passport authorities, police traced and arrested him from an apartment in Hyderabad, the release added.

(With inputs from PTI)

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