About 21,000 movies were found on the hard disks of film piracy website operator Immadi Ravi, after he was arrested earlier this week, police said on Monday. The operator of the ibomma website was using new technology to pirate movies.
Hyderabad CP Sajjanar said that the Ravi uploads pirated movies not just on websites like iBomma and bappam but also on Telegram. He had earned about Rs 20 crore by placing gambling site advertisements in the middle of the films.
He also said that Ravi also collected the personal data of 50 lakh people by infiltrating users' phones using APK files. Ravi also allegedly has international links.
Sajjnar warned users to stay away from using such sites. “You think it is free, but they will steal all your data. The people who consider iBomma as a platform to download movies for free are forgetting the huge betting mafia behind it,” he said. Police also said that they found that many people committed suicide due to the gambling sites promoted by Ravi on the sites.
He also said police are surveilling netizens who are posting memes about the case on the internet. Sajjnar recalled that Ravi had once posted on social media saying " Let's see if you can catch me."
Actors Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, director Rajamouli, producer Dil Raju, and others attended the press conference with CP Sajjnar.
Four cases have been registered against Immadi Ravi under the IT Act and the Copyright Act.
Immadi Ravi has a B.Sc. Computer Science degree and hails from Vishakapatnam. His current place of residence is in Rainbow Vista in Kukatpally. Police found that he had obtained a licence and PAN cards in Maharashtra under different names. He has also given up his Indian citizenship to get a citizenship on the dual island country St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean islands. He had also lived in France and ran the website from many countries, with servers in the US, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
Ravi operated mirror sites with 110 domains. Out of the Rs 20 crore, Rs 3 crore has been seized by authorities.
Police said that they had arrested two accused in the case so far, and further investigations are taking place. Authorities nabbed Immadi Ravi as he was returning from France to finalise his divorce with his wife.
