Udta Punjab leak: Delhi man held in Mumbai

A Delhi resident was arrested here today in connection with the illegal uploading of Bollywood movie “Udta Punjab” ahead of its official release last week.

The accused, identified as Deepak Kumar, was summoned to the office of the Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police here today where he was arrested, a senior officer said.

The investigators have found that the original Censor Board copy was “stolen” and subsequently uploaded on a website, the officer said.

The officer had earlier said that Kumar was held from Delhi but later clarified that he was summoned after a team of local police visited Delhi to make some preliminary inquiry and to trace the owner of a website in connection with the leak of the drug-themed film.

Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, the movie starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh, was released on June 17 after a legal battle by its makers against the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) which had suggested multiple cuts to clear the film.

A complaint of illegal uploading of the film on the internet was lodged with cyber police on June 15 by Satyajit Mukherjee, Deputy General Manager (legal) of Phantom Films Pvt Ltd, makers of the film. Mukherjee had also alleged that the film was uploaded on two separate links of website Torrent.com, police said.

When the movie was downloaded, it was realised that the original Censor copy was “stolen” and subsequently uploaded on the website by user robby007, the officer said.

After Kumar arrived at the cyber cell office, he was quizzed thoroughly before being placed under arrest in the evening, police said, adding the movie was uploaded allegedly through website allmovies.in.

According to the officer, police prima facie found that Kumar was actively involved in online leakage of the movie. He was booked under relevant sections of IT Act as well as under Copyright Act.