Delhi: Four held for selling pirated books of international publisher, over 3,200 copies seized

New Delhi, Sep 24 (PTI) The Delhi Police have arrested four people involved in selling pirated books of a reputed international publisher and also seized more than 3,200 copies worth over Rs 15 lakh, officials said on Wednesday.

Police said they received a complaint about the sale of pirated copies of a book in Daryaganj -- a hub of book trading in the capital.

Acting on the complaint, a team raided a shop in Kucha Lalman, on September 22.

"During the raid, 758 pirated books were recovered and three men -- Omkar (25), Deepak (25) and Satyam (38) -- were arrested. Based on their disclosures, police conducted a follow-up raid the next day at another shop in Katra Sujan Rai in Delhi Gate, where 2,475 more pirated books were seized and another accused, Kutubuddin alias Chand, was held," an officer said.

A total of 3,233 pirated books were seized in the two raids.

During interrogation, Omkar told police that earlier his father ran the shop but after he suffered a heart attack a month ago, he along with his cousins Deepak and Satyam took over the business and turned to selling pirated books to make quick money.

"Kutubuddin, on the other hand, revealed he had suffered huge losses during the Covid-19 pandemic and was under heavy debt, which led him to sell pirated books online," the officer said.

According to police, Omkar is a B.Com dropout, Deepak studied till Class 12, and Satyam has no education qualification. All three are residents of Karawal Nagar in northeast Delhi. Kutubuddin, who was picked up in the second raid, is also from Delhi. None of the four has a past criminal record.

Further investigation is on to trace the larger network and identify the source of these counterfeit books, he added. PTI BM NB