Crackdown on shops selling pirated CDs in Odisha capital

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Apr 30:

As part of the exercise to stop the sale of pirated compact discs (CD) in the Odisha Capital, the commissionerate police today formed a special team to raid the establishments and owner’s houses where the CDs are made without copyright permission from the concerned music industries.

The police have identified some such places in Bapuji Nagar, CRPF Square, Unit-I market, Old Town and other areas where the pirated CDs are sold in shops in large numbers. Raids would be conducted on these places in the coming days, sources in the commissionerate police said.

On being informed about the alleged sale of movies in different electronic formats in shops selling CDs and mobile phones in the city, a special team has been formed to tackle the issue, said Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Satyabrata Bhoi.

“Today we conducted a raid at plot number- B/41 in Saheed Nagar area and one youth named Suryanarayan Biswal was taken into custody in this regard,” said the DCP.

During the raid, the team seized hundreds of pirated CDs of Ollywood, Bollywood, Hollywood and Telugu films from Biswal.

Quoting from the statement given by the accused  to the police during interrogation, the DCP said Biswal used to earn huge profits selling pirated CDs at Rs 5 and Rs 10 each to customers after downloading from different sources without permission from the concerned music and film industries.

Police conducted raid today after acting on a complaint lodged by one Chandrakanta Sahu of Gopal Sahi in Cuttack district, manager of Super Cassette Industries Private Limited alleging the sale of pirated CDs in the city markets causing worry to film producers, company heads, distributors and retailers.