'PK' was downloaded through authorised site: Akhilesh Yadav's office

Lucknow: Amidst controversy over Akhilesh Yadav watching allegedly a pirated copy of Amir Khan starrer film PK, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's office today termed the allegation as "baseless" and said the movie was downloaded through an authorised site.

"The screening of PK was done on Club X media server installed at Akhilesh Yadav's residence. The Club X service enables authorised private screenings of movies at Club X licensed auditorium of its members. Movies can be screened from the date of their theatrical release in India," an official statement issued by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's office said here.

"Movies are delivered to the Club X media servers over a captive satellite network or are physically delivered and are stored in a digitally encrypted form. A licence is required to playback the movie each time and is issued based upon the authorisation received from the content owners," it said. "This is a commercial service with all the necessary authorisations from the content providers. This screening was done with a licence which was issued specifically for this screening," it added.

Assumptions about downloading a movie over the internet and any any unathourised used are baseless, it said. The controversy over Akhilesh Yadav's watching the movie PK generated on December 31, when he said, "I downloaded it a few days ago, but only found the time to watch it last night. I liked it immediately and decided to make it tax-free so that more people can watch it".

Founder of TAHRIR (Transparency, Accountability and Human Rights Initiative for Revolution) Sanjay Sharma had moved an application with the Hazratganj Police on January 2 for lodging an FIR against Mr Yadav for the offense of downloading the film from a website and watching a pirated copy of the film.

The chief minister's office had on Twitter reacted to the controversy by posting, "#UPCM #Akhileshyadav has licensed @UFOMoviez digifacility to download & watch movies.