Hyderabad Piracy Kingpin's Shocking Empire: 50 Lakh Users, 21,000 Films

Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar told media persons that the accused is also linked to large-scale online betting apps.

The Cyber Crime police arrested Ravi, operating the iBomma/Bappam large-scale movie piracy network, which includes over 65 mirror websites responsible for causing thousands of crores in losses to the Telugu Film Industry.

The accused was also found diverting lakhs of users from piracy websites to illegal betting platforms such as 1win, 1xbet, and others.

Sajjanar addressed the press conference with leading Tollywood actors Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and well-known producers Dil Raju and Suresh Babu to reveal details of how Ravi operated the network.

The film personalities thanked the Hyderabad Police for busting the piracy network and blocking its platforms, which were causing huge losses to the industry.

Police had received a complaint in August from the Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC), stating that piracy websites rao.ibomma.foo, bappam.dev, and about 65 associated mirror domains (collectively known as iBomma/Bappam) are illegally uploading and distributing copyrighted Telugu movies without authorization. These websites were hosting newly released theatrical and OTT films in HD quality.

The complainant stated that the operators frequently change domains, use Cloudflare hosting for anonymity, and attract millions of users, resulting in huge recurring losses to producers, distributors, and exhibitors. Based on the complaint, a case was registered under sections 66C, 66E IT Act; 318(4) r/w 3(5) of BNS and 63 and 65 of the Copyright Act.

In September, police had arrested Duddela Shivajee(27) and Susarla Prashanth (27), both natives of Andhra Pradesh, were arrested in September.

Ravi, 39, a resident of Hyderabad and native of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, was identified as the prime accused, but he had been evading arrest.

The Police Commissioner said he had also thrown a challenge to the police to arrest him.

To evade Indian law, the accused renounced his Indian citizenship and obtained citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis. He frequently travelled to countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, the USA, Thailand, France, and Dubai to collaborate with gaming and betting application operators.

By hosting his servers in foreign locations and running his websites from multiple countries, he made it extremely difficult for law enforcement agencies to trace his activities, identify hosting servers, or gather actionable technical details, Sajjanar said.

Police, after analysing technical information obtained from various domain service providers, internet service providers, and passport authorities, successfully apprehended the accused from an apartment in Kukatpally in Hyderabad on Friday.

Through the seizures made from the possession of the accused, about 21,000 movies on his hard disks were identified, ranging from Hollywood to Tollywood.

According to police, through this illegal ecosystem of piracy and betting promotions, the accused earned approximately Rs 20 crore. With the proceeds, he purchased plots and flats, and maintained a balance of Rs 3.5 crore in his bank account, which has now been frozen by the police.

Further analysis is underway to trace additional funds held in foreign accounts and cryptocurrency wallets, the Police Commissioner added.

Ravi completed his B.Sc., Computers and later moved to Mumbai, where he worked in private companies and completed an MBA. After returning to Hyderabad in 2010, he established ER Infotech, a web services firm specialising in domain registration, hosting, and website development.

Observing the high demand for online streaming, he conceived the idea of creating a free high-quality movie website, earning revenue through advertisements. Simultaneously, he noticed the rapid growth of online gaming and betting platforms and identified them as highly profitable for advertisement partnerships. Leveraging his technical expertise in web hosting and development, he created the piracy website iBOMMA in 2019, marking the beginning of his piracy and betting promotion operations.

- IANS