What's your Rashee piracy case solved, 6 nabbed

Mumbai: The six persons arrested in connection with the piracy racket of Bollywood movies used to send the movies to their mastermind in Pakistan, who then circulated it throughout the world, police said on Tuesday.

The city police had arrested six persons, including the manager of Adlabs Processing at the Film City, for allegedly stealing the masterprint of Ashutosh Gowariker-directed 'What's Your Raashee that releases in cinema halls on Friday, and making pirated DVDs.

"A person by name Asif is the mastermind behind the whole racket. One of the arrested accused, Tanzim Sayed used to send the movie via internet to Asif, who is based in Karachi in Pakistan," Joint Commissioner of Police, Rakesh Maria told reporters.

Asif used to then dispatch copies of the movie to various India cities like Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and also to other countries like Germany, Bangladesh, Austria and Indonesia.

Asif used to send money for the movies through hawala, Maria said adding it is presumed that Asif has connections with the underworld.

The six arrested accused are Afsar Hussain, Tanzim Sayed, Firoz Khan, Durgadas Bhakta, manager of Adlbas, his associate Ajay Pal and Rajesh Chaudhari, who is the associate vice president of UFO company, which deals with digital mastering of the movies.

The police recovered pirated DVDs of movies What's Your Rashee and Dil Bole Hadippa and Rs one lakh from the arrested accused.

"Chaudhari, without the knowledge of his company, used to copy movies that have been sent for digital mastering, to his laptop and used to then burn it on a DVD and hand it over to Bagta," Maria said.

Bhakta used to then hand over the DVD to Afsar and Tanzim, after which it would be sent to Pakistan, he added.

While Bhakta and Chaudhari were given Rs one lakh each, the other accused were paid anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 10,000 for every movie.

"This group has been operating since last six months and have sent 11 movies to Pakistan before their release," Mariasaid.

"The arrested accused have revealed the modus operandi of such groups across the country and we would seek help from the police of other states to curb this racket," he said.

All the accused have been sent to police custody by a local court till September.