Pirated CDs seized in Punjab, 21 people held

At least 21 people were arrested and 5,909 pirated compact discs (CDs) of new films recovered in raids across Punjab, an Indian Music Industry (IMI) official said here Wednesday.

The IMI said that following their tip-off, police conducted raids Tuesday at Chandigarh, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Faridkot, Moga and Khanna towns and seized pirated materials, mobile memory chips, CDs, MP3s, DVDs, VCDs and other equipment.

The police also seized 23 memory cards, 5,909 pirated CDs, 17 computers, 13 DVD writers, 15 card readers and other material used for piracy of films.

'The police has arrested 21 accused involved in the business of piracy across Punjab,' an IMI spokesman said here.

Police recovered titles and MP3s of various hit movies like 'Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani', 'Singh is Kinng', 'De Dana Dan', 'Jannat' and several others.

IMI officials said that Bollywood was suffering a loss of Rs.6 billion (Rs.600 crore) annually due to piracy. They added that new formats like mobile chip piracy was leading to an estimated loss of another Rs.3 billion (Rs.300 crore)

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