Noose around illegal cable operators in Jorhat

A Correspondent

Jorhat, March 20: A private detective agency ‘Black Cat Detectives’, an authorized representative of Taj Television (India) Private Limited a company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 and engaged in the distribution of the satellite based channel services of Zee TV and its other channel services like Zee Cinema, Zee Studio, 9X, Zee Khaza, Ten Sports, Cartoon Network, Pogo, HBO, CNN Intertiol to me a few, has filed an FIR with the Jorhat Police leveling serious allegation against two Jorhat based businessman for “theft of sigls, infringement of copyright and indulging in piracy and theft of property” that tantamount to prosecution under fraud.

“The Taj Television Company distributes the channel services through satellite and the encrypted sigls of various pay channels to the cable operator in DAS notified areas and Non DAS/Alog areas who executes an agreement i.e. Subscription Agreement/License with the Company by which operator/network/LCO/MSO is authorized to receive and distribute the sigls of the above channels in the agreed/ authorised area. Also a separate agreement is executed for obtaining the IRD boxes and viewing cards which decrypt the encrypted sigls. It is solely on the basis of these agreements that the IRD boxes and the viewing cards are provided to the MSO/cable operators for receiving, decoding and further distribution of the sigls of the channels to various households in the authorised areas through his cable network after complying with the terms of the agreement,” the FIR stated.

The complaint said that every MSO/cable operator has to furnish the monthly subscriber report on a monthly basis and its list of sub operators and customers.

The alleged persons, as identified through the FIR as Varghav Chaliha having a control room at -Ali Bongalpukhuri and Prasanta Baruah having a control room at Chandan gar of Jorhat continued with the malpractice of decoding and retransmitting sigls of Taj Television (India) Private Limited Company for illegal gain without possessing a valid agreement which amounts to illegal access and making available the sigls in an uuthorized manner even after being served with legal notices amounting to theft of sigls, infringement of Copyright, indulgence in piracy that is causing a huge monetary loss to the company every month as well as a huge loss to the government in terms of tax evasion, the complaint said.

Police sources said that the FIR was lodged by one Anirban Hati, an employee of Black Cat Detectives, against the two cable operators and accordingly a Jorhat PS case number 596/15 has been registered against Varghab Chaliha and Prasanta Baruah under IPC sections 406, 420 (Read With (RW) 37, 51, 57 of the Copyright Violation Act of 1957). “We have already seized the uuthorised sigl transmitting machines and some other equipments. Our investigation is on in regards,” the police said.