The Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested the Chief Executive Officer of ‘Maha Movie’ television channel for allegedly airing movies without obtaining prior permission and rights from the makers.
He was produced before a court on Tuesday, January 19, and has been remanded to custody till January 25.
According to the police, Verma’s alleged role came to light during the investigation of another channel. During interrogation, he could not give satisfactory answers after which he was placed under arrest.
Maha Movie has been named in the TRP scam case as well, for manipulating television rating points, apart from Republic TV, Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi, News Nation and Wow TV, Free Press Journal reported.
During the TRP investigation, it was found that the Maha Movie and Box Cinema were seen violating copyrights by airing films without obtaining necessary rights from filmmakers in 2020.
Box Cinema was the first named in the TRP scam case. Puneet Mehra, son of late filmmaker Prakash Mehra, had filed a complaint with Juhu police station last year in October.
Mehra alleged that the film ‘Zanjeer’ starring Amitabh Bachchan and Pran, of which he holds the copyrights, was allegedly telecasted on Box Cinema channel on March 12, 2020, without their permission.
The police also arrested two accused Raju Khan and Ghanshyam Giri, for allegedly providing the film’s print.
The owner, Narayan Sharma, who was arrested in the TRP case, is also named in the case. However, he secured anticipatory bail in the case. The case was recently transferred to the CIU on January 1.
The team raided the channel’s Malad office on January 12, seized the company’s server and various other documents. During that investigation, the police found out about the copyright violations by the Maha Movie channel.
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