In Telangana, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Unit has arrested the alleged mastermind behind the iBomma and Bappam piracy operations, a vast digital ecosystem connected to more than 65 mirror websites. The network is accused of causing losses worth thousands of crores to the Telugu film industry. According to investigators, the accused also redirected lakhs of users from piracy portals to illegal betting platforms, leading to widespread financial fraud and data theft.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar announced that the prime accused, Ravi Emandi, 39, a native of Visakhapatnam and now a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, was arrested from an apartment in Hyderabad. Two of his associates had been arrested earlier in September. The commissioner stated that the piracy ring relied on dozens of domain names and mirror extensions to host newly released Telugu films in HD quality, causing severe financial losses to filmmakers and exhibitors.
Investigators revealed that Emandi, who holds degrees in computers and business administration, previously ran a web services company in Hyderabad before shifting to piracy. He launched iBomma in 2019, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The platform quickly became one of the most visited piracy sites, attracting nearly 5 million users per month. Police seized hard drives containing over 21,000 movies in multiple languages. The commissioner added that Emandi is also named in four other FIRs related to movie piracy, online cheating, and data theft.
