Udta Punjab leak: Torrent site owner arrested

The Mumbai Police arrested a Delhi resident on June 22 for illegally uploading “Udta Punjab” on the internet. This is the first arrest after a complaint was lodged with the cyber police on June 15 by the film’s makers.

According to a senior officer, the accused, Deepak Kumar, was brought to the office of Mumbai Police’s cyber cell on Wednesday. The 25-year-old reportedly owns a website, “allzmovies.in,” in which he uploaded the Abhishek Chaubey directorial.

It was said that the movie was stolen and the censor board had no link with the leaking of the film. The report suggests that the officer further said the movie was subsequently uploaded on the website by user robby007.

“During the investigation, it was revealed that website allmovies.com had uploaded the said link on its website. A team visited Delhi and adjoining areas and after diligent efforts Deepak Kumar was traced. He was summoned to the cyber police station, Mumbai, and after thorough investigation, his active role was revealed. He has been arrested,” it added.

Earlier, the film’s producers had lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police in Mumbai after a copy of the film with ‘for censor’ written on the top left was leaked on various torrent websites, thereby raising questions about role of the censor board — Central Board of Film Certification — in the leak.

However, CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani had rejected the allegations saying the board has nothing to do with the leak.

“The person responsible has already been identified and the leak will be tracked down. We will cooperate if we are approached as part of the investigation,” Nihalani said.

The makers of Udta Punjab struggled to remove copies of the movie that were available for download on torrent sites, but managed to remove most of them.