According to public prosecutor V Desai, the three accused — Prasadbhau Battala, Anilkumar Jaiswar and Asif Sheikh— were members of Bharat Copyright Protection Company, based in Dharavi. Special anti-corruption judge S N Sardessai convicted the trio under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Monday and observed that piracy would not reduce and the state ex chequer will keep suffering losses if such activities are not controlled.

According to complainant Ramesh Kamath, who owns a CD library at Chembur, on April 25, 2003, one of the accused, Sheikh, came to his library along with two constables and demanded to search his library for pirated CDs. During the raid, Sheikh and the policemen found 17 pirated CDs from the library. Sheikh threatened to prosecute Kamath under the Copyright Act.

However, when Kamath pleaded him not to do so, Sheikh demanded Rs 20,000.

After Kamath paid Rs 17,000 to Sheikh, he started demanding more money. Then Kamath filed a complaint with the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB). The sleuths lay a trap and arrested Sheikh red-handed while he was accepting bribe.

During the trial, ACB examined 18 witnesses to prove their case, while the accused denied all charges. Desai argued, “It was a serious offence and maximum punishment of seven years should be given to the offenders sending a strong signal in the society.”