Hyderabad, January 31: Five persons who were indulging in piracy of books were nabbed by the sleuths of the Central Crime Station (CCS) and pirated books worth several lakhs of rupees were seized at their instance.
Elchuri Venkat Rao, a prominent health evangelist, who runs the health magazine `Andariki Ayurvedam’ recently lodged a complaint with the CCS stating that some of the officials working under him have been illegally publishing three different periodical magazines penned by him.
Disclosing the details at a press conference Saturday, CCS Assistant Commissioner of Police, Srinivas said that C Mohan Rao, P Veerabhadra Rao, C Sambasiva Reddy, S Ramesh and H Vinod have been arrested for making duplicates of three prominent health magazines – Jeevanavedam, Vanamulikavedam and Aharavedam- written by Venkat Rao.
“The availability of pirated books was noticed by Venkat Rao after he observed that the sale of his original versions had gone down drastically. He then made some enquiries and found that the persons working under him were indulging in the offence,’’ Srinivas said.
During investigation, police learnt that the circulation manager Mohan Rao and accountant Veerabadhra Rao were hand in glove with one P L Narasimha Rao of Sai Ganesh printers in Vijayawada.
Venkat Rao publishes his magazines at his own printing press called Sidda Nagarjuna.
“But Veerabadhra Rao and Mohan Rao used to obtain the CDs containing the material from Sambasiva Reedy, a DTP operator of Venkat Rao.
“Using the CDs, they have been publishing the magazines at Vijayawada before they are circulated in the open market,’’ Srinivas said.
According to police, till now the accused earned nearly Rs 50 lakh by publishing the books illegally.
Veerabhadra Rao has also swindled off nearly Rs five lakh belonging to the firm.
“The original cost of the book is Rs 300 but the accused has been selling the duplicate books for just Rs 180. The production of the each duplicate book is Rs 60,’’ Srinivas added.
–Agencies