8 held for running porn streaming service in Surat
TM Perfume House
".
They offered subscriptions for amounts ranging from Rs 699 to Rs 4,999 to grant access to pornographic videos on their platform. According to investigators, the accused collected about Rs 15 lakh a month from subscriptions and had been running the racket for a year.
Deputy commissioner of police Rajdeep Nakum told TOI: "Police inspector Atul Sonara and his team received intelligence about a pornographic video access service being run in the name of a perfume company from The Boulevard complex in the Adajan area and Oberon Complex in the Pal area.
We raided these offices and arrested eight persons, four owners and four technical workers involved in running the platform.
"The accused started their business selling 'copy' goods. They then formed a firm called TM Perfume House. They began an Instagram page and provided a WhatsApp link for customers. As their customer base increased, they began offering subscriptions to premium pornographic content from international providers in advertisements on their Instagram page and WhatsApp," Nakum said.
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"The accused started by subscribing to popular premium porn sites and downloaded hundreds of videos. They put these videos on a server owned by them and began offering access to these videos through subscription packages costing between Rs 699 and Rs 4,999," Nakum added.
"The accused chose large international pornographic websites and where premium content was available. They downloaded this premium content and offered it for cheap on their server.
They would send a QR code to customers and provide a server link to grant access once the payment was received. They created logos for entities such as 'NOM 31, Ananta, and TMTea Ching' to categorize their subscribers."
The alleged owners of the entity who have been arrested, with a 25% stake each, are Jaimin Dobariya, Shwetul Dobariya, Harsh Patel and Milan Gondaliya. They formed two other firms called 'Just Visionary Entertainment' and 'Fourpirates Ventures LLP'.
The racket was run under these firms and offered 'The Ultimate 18+ Streaming Platform'. The technical workers who have been arrested are Vinesh Patel, Pujan Patel, Mayur Parmar and Irfan Ansari.
Claimed celebrities used their perfumes
When police raided the office, they found 70 employees working there. The perfume firm under which this racket was running claimed on its website that celebrities such as Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Ranveer Singh, Hardik Pandya and others used their fragrances. They claimed to have recreated many fragrances. According to police, 250 employees worked for the firm in shifts as their perfumes were sold online.
They had also created branding material using images of celebrities, including Shahrukh Khan. "We will check if any copyright or other intellectual property rights have been violated by the accused," Nakum said.
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