Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Azhagiri discharged in video piracy case

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: A Fast Track Court here discharged M.K. Azhagiri, elder son of the former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, of all charges in a video piracy case on Thursday. The Additional District and Sessions Judge, M. Sekhar, held that the order of the trial court was not legal and discharged the accused from the case.

On June 16, 2003, sleuths of the Video Piracy Prevention Cell searched two shops owned by Mr. Azhagiri in Madurai and seized 4,037 pirated audio and video compact discs. A case was registered under Section 52 (A) read with 68 (A) of the Copyright Act and Section 7 (2) (c) of the Tamil Nadu Cinematograph Act against Mr. Azhagiri and the shopkeeper, S. Damodaran. A discharge petition filed in the trial court (Fifth Judicial Magistrate court) was dismissed.

In a revision petition seeking discharge filed in the second FTC, the counsel for Mr. Azhagiri said that the accused was lodged in the Tiruchi Central prison in connection with another case when the search operation was conducted and hence was not liable. The second accused, Damodaran, was fully in-charge and ran the business by himself since Mr. Azhagiri "was a prominent leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and was involved in politics."

Moreover, it was contended that the very initiation of the case was illegal as no complaint was received or obtained from any copyright owner of the copyright work. There was no evidence, technical or otherwise, to prove that the seized CDs contained prints of pirated films.

In his order, the Judge said there was no prima facie case made out against the revision petitioner (Mr. Azhagiri) and he was entitled to be discharged from the case. "Since the trial court order is not a legal one, the interference of this court is warranted," he said.

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