Two book pirates held in Hyderabad while Kejriwal’s <i>Swaraj</i> rules the footpaths

Two persons, who were indulging in piracy of books belonging to prominent publishers like Penguin, Tata McGraw Hill, Simson & Schuster, were arrested by Central Crime Station (CCS) officials on Saturday.

27 Mar 2014 | By Mihir Joshi

Central Crime Station (CCS) officials said that Syed Zaker Ali and Kommera Sampath Reddy were arrested and huge quantity of pirated books and 250 negative films were seized from them and based on a complaint given by Publishers' Association, police have registered a case under section 420 (Cheating) and the Infringement of Copyrights Act.

Police allege that Syed Zaker along with Sampath Reddy, owner of The Print Shoppe started publishing pirated versions of books of various publishers illegally and selling them on footpaths and other locations, in order to earn easy money.

According to sales figures of pirated books the English translation of Arvind Kejriwal's book Swaraj, which is essentially his political manifesto is one of the best seller over the last year. The 151-page book made it to the pirate publishers and is freely available from roadside vendors across the country. The pirated version of the book is sold at 2/3rd the price of the original copy printed by HarperCollins.