The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Over 34,000 DVDs, CDs crushed by road roller

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Over 34,000 DVDs, CDs crushed by road roller

Staff Reporter

They were seized at airport and foreign post office

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

NO TO PIRACY: Customs officials throwing pirated copies of movies under a road roller at the air cargo complex in Meenambakkam on Friday.

CHENNAI: The message was loud and clear to the smugglers of pirated DVDs and CDs.

The contraband, numbering 34,000, seized by the Customs were crushed by a road roller in the presence of officials in the parking area of the air cargo complex at Meenambakkam on Friday.

This was in line with the World Customs Organisation's theme for this year, `No to counterfeiting and piracy,' said C. Rajan, Commissioner of Customs, (Airport).

A little over 34,000 DVDs and CDs were seized both at the airport and the air cargo complex foreign post office, Mr. Rajan said.

The DVD copies included English movies such as Harry Potter, Ben Hur and Pirates of the Caribbean.

He said these pirated DVDs were mainly smuggled from Malaysia. Passengers used to conceal them in hand baggage and milk and biscuit tins. To avoid detection, the smugglers used to cover the hole in the disc with black paper and packed them flatly.

145 cases booked

The discs were seized during the past year and a total of 145 cases were booked both at the airport and the foreign post office at the air cargo complex. The seized contraband was worth Rs. 35 lakh, Mr. Rajan said.

The broken pieces were shifted to a recycling unit at the erstwhile Madras Export Processing Zone.

" This is the third such destruction done in the last two years and we are keeping a strict watch on the suspected movement of such pirated DVD/VCD both at the airport and the Foreign Post Office," Mr. Rajan said.

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