Crypto Trail Leads Cops To Piracy Kingpin
The investigation into the Telugu movie piracy racket has led to the identification of one of its prime accused, Cyril Infant Raj Amaladoss, a crypto trader from Tamil Nadu.
Hyderabad: The investigation into the Telugu movie piracy racket has led to the identification of one of its prime accused, Cyril Infant Raj Amaladoss, a crypto trader from Tamil Nadu. Police traced him through a cryptocurrency wallet that received 4,000 USDT (Tether), exposing his digital trail despite his efforts to stay anonymous.
Investigators found that Cyril was operating through Telegram and even his cryptocurrency handler in Pune knew him only by his Telegram ID. Police said the accused had been masking his identity for nearly ten months while running a large-scale piracy syndicate.
Meanwhile, a police official confirms to Deccan Chronicle that the challenging statements purportedly released by ibomma that doing rounds on social media were old ones. The note was released during the release of Kushi movie in 2023 and emerged on Wednesday following the bust of the piracy syndicate.
The racket was unearthed by the Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC). The cell, active since 2010, is staffed by IT professionals who monitor websites and platforms for pirated uploads and work with authorities to remove illegal content.
In one case, the team traced the pirated upload of the movie Single to a theater in Attapur using an invisible digital watermark. The watermark, unique to each theater, helped identify four viewers, one of whom, Jana Kiran Kumar, had filmed the movie on his phone. “About 47 members watched that show in the Attapur theatre and eventually four people were identified and Jana Kiran Kumar turned out to be the one who recorded the movie with his phone,” the official explained. His arrest led police to Cyril, who had uploaded the film online.
During the probe, police also found that the film HIT was leaked online in HD quality in both Hindi and English, not just in Hyderabad but also in Mumbai. Investigations revealed that a Bihar native, Ashwani Kumar, was behind the hacking.
Ashwani, who managed a sophisticated setup with high-end servers and CCTV surveillance around his home, was found to possess sensitive data related to the Bihar government and several political figures. His servers were seized, and police are examining the data for further evidence.