MUMBAI, January 22: For years audio-piracy has been a tough problem. Now, the multi-crore Indian Music Industry (IMI) has got back with a `tough' solution: a crack unit comprising retired top brass with outstanding records, drawn from the police, paramilitary and intelligence services.Of the 35 of these IMI operatives is V Balachandran, a 1959 batch Maharashtra cadre IPS officer who served 18 years in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) before retiring as special secretary, Bhudeb Chakrabarti, former Deputy IGP of the CRPF, BP Bam who retired as Joint Director Intelligence Bureau (IB) in Mumbai last year, and Prakash Singh who fought terrorism in Punjab before retiring as Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF).
Recruitment is done mainly through the old boys network and the personal reputation of the officers. ``We contact our batchmates and run routine checks on the backgrounds of the officers we induct,'' Balachandran says. But it all began with the recruitment of Julio Ribeiro. The
supercop has spent the last two years painstakingly building his elite team. Balachandran joined in the last week of December, Bam joined IMI early last year, Prakash Singh joined in April followed by Chakrabarti in November.
Controlling IMI activities in four zones, they form the thrust of the music industry's onslaught against audio pirates. The industry is worth an estimated Rs 800 crore annually. Piracy eats away about 40 per cent of that. Comparitively, last year IMI spend a piffling Rs 2.5 crore in their anti-piracy drive but isn't stinting on cash. ``It's not a cheap initiative. We'll spend whatever is required to fight piracy,'' said IMI head honcho Vijay Lazarus. Though no one's telling, the team is being paid quite a packet too. But why former cops? Balachandran who is setting up IMI operations in the four southern states, explains. ``They vibe well with the present police administration and are familiar with legal aspects and investigation procedures.'' ``We have chosen them very very
carefully,'' says Ribeiro. ``The problem in audio piracy is that once the pirates buy over our operatives, we have very little chance against them.''
IMI officials give instances of how moles in the organisation leaked out information about IMI raids. An entire team in the western zone was scrapped after several IMI raids failed. Prakash Singh, who heads IMI's North Zone revealed how one of his operatives was caught passing information to the pirates last month. The operative, not an ex-cop, was expelled.
Since the IMI has no powers to conduct raids, it functions more like an intelligence gathering outfit and informs the police about Intellectual Property Right (IPR) infringements.So retired officers with unquestioned integrity are hand picked to head teams of four persons in each state. The country is divided into four zones, each placed under an IPR coordinator.
Most of the IMI's supercops have known each other for years. ``It was a pleasure to work with Ribeiro again,'' says keen music lover Bam who
heads IMI's west zone. Then there's the angle of foreign piracy, where a company located in Pakistan imports a consignment of duplicated Hindi film music for resale abroad. Ribeiro hopes Balachandran will help set up the IMI's external intelligence agency to curb foreign piracy.The concerted drive against pirates is working. IMI officials point out that piracy has come down considerably in the last two years since they began raids which confiscated cassettes, duplicating machines and inlay cards.``It's difficult to quantify our success,'' says Balachandran, ``But wherever we have gone into action slaes of genuine cassettes have gone up.'' The realistic target, Lazarus says, is to bring down from 40 to 15 percent. Informants are aplenty.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
