Navi Mumbai: Five people working with two cable network services in CBD Belapur were booked for illegally broadcasting channels belonging to Sony Network.
Police said technicians and owners of Richnet Cable Network and Digispace Cable Network have been booked under the Copyright Act following a raid on their office on Saturday. The police team was joined in the raid by a consultant for Sony Network.
According to the police, the agreement between Richnet and Sony Network expired in March. API Chandrahar Godse, CBD Belapur police station, said, “There was a due of around ₹4.5 crore which the cable service was not ready to pay. Despite frequent communication between Sony Network and the cable service, the latter didn’t pay up, so Sony stopped providing their services to the cable TV operator.”
Police said Belapur-based Richnet began broadcasting Sony channels illegally via Digispace cable network, based in Mumbai. When Sony officials came to know about the illegal broadcast, they wrote to Richnet services asking to stop. Mr Upendra Jalgaonkar, a consultant appointed by Sony, stayed in a hotel in Belapur to check for compliance.
Mr Jalgaonkar found the televison in the hotel using Richnet services was telecasting the channels, following which he filed a complaint at CBD Belapur police station. The police raided the office of Richnet in Hilton Towers and seized set-top boxes belonging to Digispace and Richnet.
The accused were booked under under sections 63, 69, 37 and 51 of the Copyright Act . “We are yet to make arrests in the case and are investigating,” Mr. Godse said.
