Four men have been arrested over the leak that led to the release of August 6 episode of Game of Thrones, three days before its premiere. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the four men are associated with the technology vendor, Prime Focus Technologies based in Bengaluru.
“We have just learnt from law enforcement agencies about the significant progress made by them into the investigation of the breach… including the arrest of four individuals associated with our technology vendor, Prime Focus Technologies. This is the first time in the history of Star India that an incident of this nature has occurred. We are deeply grateful to the police for their swift and prompt action. We believe that valuable intellectual property is a critical part of the development of the creative industry and strict enforcement of the law is essential to protecting it,” Star India and Novi Digital told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.
The police had reportedly tracked the leaks earlier to the Bengaluru firm, but in the FIR it was stated that one employee and one former employee were involved. Further questioning of the company’s employees resulted in the arrest of four people for being complicit in the cyber crime, on August 11 night.
The private company reportedly filed a written complaint to the MIDC police station in Andheri East in Mumbai. They also approached the cyber police station last week with a written complaint after which an FIR was registered.
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The Hindustan Times reports that Bhaskar Joshi, Alok Sharma and Abhishek Ghadiyal held technical posts in the firm and had access to the video. Mohamad Suhail, a former employee, leaked the low-quality video of the episode on the internet after receiving it from the other accused.
The accused have been booked under section 408, 34 of IPC for breach of trust with common intention and sections 43 and 66 of IT Act for penalty and compensation for damage to computer and computer-related offences.