Pakistanis Arrested with 550 Pirated Video Discs

Malaysian police have crippled the activities of an international syndicate trying to sneak in pirated master copies of the latest Bollywood movies with the arrest of two Pakistanis at the KL International airport.

A total of 550 video compact discs (VCDs) and digital video discs (DVDs) containing more than 35 Hindi blockbusters were seized from a 50-year-old man and his 21-year-old son on Saturday.

Several of the titles, including movies like Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Soch starring Hindi heartthrobs Hrithik Roshan, Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor were supposed to be released in local cinemas only this week.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Abu Bakar Mustaffa, Selangor CID chief, confirmed the arrests and seizure but declined to elaborate.

A movie industry official, who described the arrest as a major blow to local film-piracy syndicates, said the master copies could have been used to produce more than 100,000 pirated VCDs and DVDs worth millions of ringgit.

The Pakistanis were arrested while waiting for their luggage at the main terminal building after a five-hour flight from Karachi.

Airport security and police officials, who collared the suspects after receiving information from a local movie production and distributing firm, found the VCDs and DVDs carefully concealed among personal belongings.

Investigations also revealed that the father, a businessman, had been visiting the country for the past 10 years, while his son was studying computer studies in the United States.

Both of them have since been remanded for 10 days and are expected to be charged under the Copyrights Act.