Mumai: Former employees of Censor Board- Lithin, Arunkumar, both hailing from Nedumangad and Kumaran of Kovalam have been arrested in leaking the Malayalam film ‘Premam’. The accused who were working with Censor Board had been expelled one and half months ago.
Anti Piracy cell on Monday said that the Censor Board has no role in leaking the film. Police said that there will be more arrests in coming days. Cases have been registered against the trio under the IT Act, Copyright Act and cheating.
Earlier, police had arrested three teenage boys, including two school students aged between 15-19, from Kollam district in connection with the case. Apparently, one of the accused- a 15-year-old, had first uploaded the pirated CD onto a site- Kickass in which pirated CDs are uploaded, from where several other hackers downloaded the movie just four days after its release.
Anti Piracy Cell officials confirmed that the leaked copy of the film was originated from Censor Board as the DVD of the film was handed over to the board on May 18. According to the police, the arrests came after scientifically ascertaining the trio's role in leaking the popular film, which was released in the last week of May.
The pirated copy circulating online was brought forth by producer Anwar Rasheed and he filed an online complaint. The highly anticipated film 'Premam' helmed by Alphonse Puthren, suffered a huge setback as the pirated version hit its revenue.
