Fake copyright organisation busted, 4 held for duping youths

Hyderabad police today busted a "bogus" copyright organisation and arrested four persons for allegedly duping over 100 job aspirants to the tune of Rs 3 crore.
Of the over 100 victims, the accused had even appointed around 20 members as junior investigators and "authorised" them to serve notices to those indulging in copyright and trademark violations, police said.
Based on specific inputs, a police team raided the office of Vigilance and Enforcement for Indian Copyrights (VEIC) at Secunderabad and arrested four fraudsters, a release from the city police said.
The four accused, identified as Ch Rathnakar, Aravind Josef, P Ramesh Reddy and Ch Satyanarayana, had established the bogus office and cheated unemployed youths with the false promise of providing jobs in their organisation as junior investigators, it added.

The accused, under the guise of a copyright protection force, claimed that they were working as the chairman, director, chief executive member and supervisor respectively, it said.
"So far, the accused have cheated about 100 to 120 candidates of Rs 3 crore," it said.

According to police, the accused claimed that their establishment has been authenticated by the government to act against piracy and copyrights violations.
"In February this year, they set up the VEIC office claiming that they would raid those establishments, which are found selling or manufacturing duplicate products, and inform the copyright authorities. However, they did not follow the rules and regulations," police said.

Under the promise of providing jobs in the VEIC, they collected study certificates and bio-data from job seekers, and money in the range of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 8 lakh by offering the posts of senior investigator to them, police said.
"After getting the money, the accused prepared fake appointment letters and handed them over to the candidates. To make them believe, they also conducted a one-month training programme, before appointing them as junior investigators," police said.
As per the instructions from the accused, the candidates had even started serving notices to various establishments, accusing them of violation of copyrights, trademark, piracy, etc, police said.

"So far, they had appointed 20 to 30 members as junior investigators and set a 'safari' dress code and deputed them to serve the caution notices in the name of VEIC," the police added.
Police have seized Rs 14.82 lakh in cash, appointment letter pads, empty letter pads, bio-data forms, four walkie talkies, three computers, four cars and other incriminating material from the possession of the accused.