Two-and-half lakh compact discs with pirated prints of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and English films are what the Video Piracy Cell police seized in the city on Monday.
According to Inspector, Video Piracy Cell, S. Shanmugaiah, a team of police led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Y. John Nicholson raided the warehouse on Oppanakara Street around afternoon.
Mr. Shanmugaiah said that the discs – video compact discs and digital video discs – were worth Rs. 1.50 crore and was seized from the warehouse, which reportedly belonged to Ravichandran.
The Inspector said that in a raid the Chennai Unit of the Cell conducted a fortnight or so ago, they seized CDs with pirated prints and arrested Khwaja Mohideen.
He had told the police about Ravichandran and also Yousuf. He had also told the Cell sleuths that Ravichandran was from Coimbatore and that he had a warehouse in Coimbatore.
Following the lead, the police traced the godown to Oppanakara Street. They Coimbatore Unit Police also conducted their investigation to verify the Mohideen’s information.
After it turned out to be true, Mr. Shanmugaiah said that the Police opened the warehouse on Monday afternoon and seized the pirated discs. The police were yet to arrest Ravichandran, though.
He said that only if they were able to arrest Ravichandran would they be able to trace the link and identify the others involved in the trade.
They were not sure, as of now, as to how he sourced the prints and where he copied them.
