Crime branch conducts counterfeit raids in Delhi, Pune

Following the complaints filed by Adobe Systems under section 63, 63B, 64 and section 65 of the copyright act 1957, the deputy commissioner of police, north west Delhi, conducted a raid on October 19 at the alleged Print Expert, located at B98/99, Industrial Area, GT Karnal Road, Ashok Vihar. New Delhi.

The police have arrested software firm owner Naresh Malhotra for using infringed software of adobe systems, for commercial use in his office, without valid license or authority.

Speaking to The DQ Week, ACP Ram Pal Singh informed, "As per the complaint filed by Adobe, we had conducted a raid at Print Expert along with Adobe legal team that comprised of Rajesh Mishra and Shashi Kant Khandare, a software expert. During the raid, we had seized and confiscated 12 Central Processing Unit (CPUs) from the above mentioned location. The prime face office is of copy right Act 1957. We have registered a copyright case against Naresh Malhotra and arrested him."

The raid was a part of the crime branch's bid to curb software piracy. After failing to stop the sale of pirated softwares, the crime branch has now started targeting places where the demand exists.

In other incident, the Pune crime branch, headed by Inspector Handore under supervision of Sunil Patil (Inspector), conducted a raid at computer hardware cum software shop at Datawadi. A total of 15 computer systems were checked. The raid involved seizure and confiscation of 8 computers placed at the premises of the said location as they were found installed with Adobe software programs for manufacturing pirated CDs.

The police have booked owner and co-owner of the shop, Nelesh Vishwanath Modghe and Rohan Vijay Purkar, in connection with the counterfeit software, where a formal FIR bearing number 3149/2012 has now been registered and on the basis of the same, both of them have been arrested and taken into custody.

The police seized and confiscated installations of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - 7 installations, Adobe Illustrator CS2 - 5 installations, Acrobat pro 7.0 - 1 installation, Creative Suite 4 - 1 installation. Illustrator CS5 - 2 installations and Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3 - 1 installation during the raid.

Commenting on the anti-piracy raids in Delhi and Pune,Umang Bedi- MD, South Asia, Adobe India said, "We commend the work done by the Pune Police Force in taking decisive action against those who are allegedly involved in acts of software piracy. Software piracy and intellectual property infringement continues to be a major challenge for India, with significant economic impact to the nation.Adobe supports the efforts of the government and law enforcement agencies to address this, to uphold the law, and to protect the rights and investment of millions of software users in India and globally who are using safe, legal products in their businesses, schools and homes every day."

The DQWeek has a copy of FIRs for Delhi and Pune raids.