Piracy rackets shift base to Kochi

KOCHI: After Anti-Piracy Cell of the state police’s drive against pirated CDs in Thiruvananthapuram city and Beemapalli area, the rackets have now shifted base to Ernakulam and central districts. According to the Anti-Piracy Cell officials, the number of cases has increased as rackets consisting of college students and operating from the central districts of the state are finding it to be a quick means to earn easy money.
Last week, the Anti-Piracy Cell conducted raids across the state and arrested three persons from Angamaly and Aluva. A large number of pirated CDs, mostly of latest Malayalam movies and pornographic material, were seized from the shops.
“The mafia involved in the creation of pirated CDs have changed shifted their base to Kochi and Kozhikode. These rackets have links with other cities like Chennai and Bangalore and are transported to Kerala via rail and road routes. These CDs reach the  state in parcels through trains and though the road routes. Also, many students are involved in the cases of piracy as download films from the internet and then sell them,” an Anti-Piracy Cell official said.
According to DySP (Anti-Piracy Cell) S Rafeek, the Kochi rackets are closely connected to people who were operating from Beemapalli and the supply of the pirated CDs come from  the same sources. “We are looking for four persons who are actively involved in piracy in Kochi, “ Rafeek said. He also said that these students are given remuneration by the website owners operating in other countries. “These students are given commission for downloading movies and selling the CDs. Recently, the arrest of two students revealed that they operate like a company. They were given promotion if they performed the illegal activity well. The students compete with each other to break the records by selling larger numbers of CDs for which they are given additional remuneration. However, arresting these youngsters will not stop the illegal activity. We have to arrest the kingpins who fund these students and are based in US, UK and other European countries,” Rafeek added.
He added that the lack of anti-piracy cells in other cities is a problem. “We are a state-wide unit based in Thiruvananthapuram. Since, we do not have sub units in other districts, the monitoring of the entire state becomes difficult. Now, we act on the information given by the local police,” he added.