Sunday, February 7, 2010

Mumbai police and AA Khan and associates seize 4500 Pirated Discs

A Khan & Associates a group formed by Mr. AA Khan, former IPS officer & Ex. ATS Chief along with Mumbai Police raided 2 locations in Mumbai and seized over 4500 pirated DVDs and CDs worth over Rs. 2,65,000.

The first raid was conducted at Andheri West, in a Godown next to the railway station. Around 2000 pirated CDs and DVDs were seized at the location. The pirated CDs and DVDs included last week’s release Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Rann’ and Vishal Bharadwaj’s ‘Ishqiya’. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘3 Idiots’ & Salman Khan starrer ‘Veer’, Marathi movies ‘Jhenda’ and ‘Natrang’ and yet to be released English movie, ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ were other titles. The total amount of confiscated goods was around Rs.1, 27,000.

The next raid carried out at Matunga West near the railway station uncovered 2730 pirated CDs and DVDs. The DVDs and CDs found included Hindi movies like ‘Ishqiya’, ‘Rann’, ‘Veer’ and ‘3 Idiots’. Goods confiscated were pegged at around Rs. 1, 42, 000.

The raids were conducted by a 4 member team from AA Khan & Associates. The raid in Andheri was carried out by DN Nagar Police station along with 2 members from AA Khan & Associates. The other 2 members of the team carried out the raid at Matunga along with SS Branch. The coming week will witness the much awaited release of the year, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer, ‘My Name is Khan’ and AA Khan & Associates will keep a watch for pirates indulging in piracy of the movie. Says Mr. AA Khan, former IPS officer & Ex. ATS Chief, “Piracy is a serious offence and one which is rampant within major parts of the city. We along with Mumbai Police are dedicated to the cause of arresting the increase of such activities. However, the job of the police is nullified since the common man goes and purchases movies from such pirates. People need to remember that besides denying the creators of the content their fair share, the proceeds from such sales fund several illegal activities including terrorism in India and abroad.”

Four people have been arrested respectively. Salimuddin Khan, Age 22, has been arrested during Andheri Raid. Three stall owners, Raju Prakash Teli, Age 22, Dinesh Amrutlal Gupta Age 25 & Santosh Kumar Sahu, Age 28 were arrested during the Matunga Raid. The accused were booked under sections 51, 52(A), 63, 68(A) of the Copyright Act of 1957.

In the last one month AA Khan & Associates was instrumental in raiding around 20 locations in Mumbai and seizing goods worth lakhs of rupees and helping the movie industry in curbing the menace of piracy to an extent.