The Delhi Police have dismantled an online book-piracy network with the arrest of its alleged operator and issuing notices to five others connected to the scheme, officials said Thursday.
According to the police, the key accused in the case has been identified as a 27-year-old Anmol Kiro, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase-I, who allegedly ran the network through a website and distributed pirated academic books nationwide.
The network maintained an appearance of legitimacy by running an online shop front, using digital payment methods, generating automated invoices, sourcing pirated books from street vendors, and shipping orders across India through courier services.
They said the printing and plate-making were outsourced to different units in order to evade detection.
A senior police officer said the investigation into the case began after an FIR was lodged on November 3 under charges of cheating and relevant sections of the Copyright Act. Technical surveillance of the website eventually led officers to the alleged operator, Kiro.
The police said a raid at Kiro’s residence led to the seizure of 42 pirated academic books from reputed publishers.
It was found that Kiro created an e-commerce platform, “BookBhandar.in”, and a linked social media account and used a bank account in the name of “Finskool Education” to receive payments, the officer added.
He is alleged to have sourced pirated books from Daryaganj and shipped them across India via courier services.
During questioning, Kiro disclosed details of the broader supply chain. Acting on his confession, a follow-up raid at Ganesh Nagar, Pandav Nagar, resulted in the recovery of 686 pirated books across 18 different titles, which were seized and deposited in the police malkhana.
The police issued notices to four individuals connected to the network: Sunil Kumar Gupta, from whose premises the 686 books were seized; Lalan Gupta, who allegedly handled payments from the book sales; Naved, suspected to be a key supplier of pirated material; and Kamran (37), who operates a printing press in Hauz Qazi, where a printing machine was confiscated.
Another individual, Hilal Mohammad (40), was served a notice after police discovered him preparing printing plates for the pirated books. Officials have seized three such plates from him, the police said.