Pirated DVDs: Two held by anti-piracy cell

The Anti-Piracy Cell (APC) of the Kerala Police on Friday arrested two brothers engaged in duplicating and selling pirated DVDs of movies. 

The team, during a random inspection at a house in Polayathode here, seized around 1,500 pirated DVDs of latest releases, nearly 700 porn DVDs, 10,000 blank DVDs, 25,000 CD wrappers, 62 DVD writers, laser printers, a laptop and a broadband modem.

Shamon, 27, and Shabu, 29, of Nijaz Manzil, Vikas Nagar, Polayathode were the two arrested.

Anti-Piracy Cell DySP S Rafeeq told Express that the brothers were engaged in illegally duplicating latest DVD releases and distributing them to wholesale and retail dealers in Karunagappally, Chavara, Kayamkulam and Alappuzha areas.

The duo had facilities to rip latest DVD releases and make hundreds of copies within hours. Connected to their computer were four towers of DVD writers, each housing 10 writers each. Another 22 spare DVD writers were also found in the house.

The seized pirated collection includes latest DVD releases in Malayalam such as ‘Namukku Parkkan’, ‘No 66 Madurai Bus’, ‘Thiruvambadi Thamban’, ‘Grand Master’, ‘Ordinary’ and ‘Spanish Masala’.

DVDs of movies in other Indian languages, Hollywood movies and porn movies too were found in their collection.  When the Anti-Piracy team reached for inspection, the duo were engaged in duplicating the DVDs of the movie ‘Namukku Parkkan’. The laptop was found connected with the broadband and downloading was in progress. DySP Rafeeq said that the team had seized documents and bank account details from the house, to probe into the financial sources of the duo.