Book piracy racket busted in Delhi; over 20,000 copies seized, one held

The Delhi Police has busted a book piracy racket and arrested a 67-year-old man allegedly involved in the illegal printing and sale of counterfeit books of a publishing house, an official said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Jwala Prasad Soni, was found running an organised network engaged in the unauthorised printing, storage and distribution of copyrighted books, the official said.

Acting on a complaint received on March 14, a team conducted a raid at Rohini Sector-16 and seized 8,593 pirated books from the premises.

During further investigation, another raid at a nearby location led to the recovery of 11,544 more pirated books, taking the total seizure to 20,137 copies, police said.

They said the accused initially attempted to mislead the probe by giving false information about the source of printing. However, sustained interrogation during police custody led to a breakthrough, exposing the printing infrastructure used for large-scale piracy.

“Subsequently, two printing machines were recovered from a press in the Anand Parbat Industrial Area, along with negatives of four pirated books and 12 printing plates used for reproducing copyrighted material,” the officer said.

Police said the recoveries establish Soni’s direct involvement in the end-to-end operation, including illegal printing and distribution. Soni has a previous case registered under the Copyright Act in 2011.