Officers from the cyber crimes wing said that the iBomma piracy racket accused insisted he merely took advantage of a loophole, claiming that since others were already bootlegging films and uploading them on Telegram, he simply lifted those files, cleaned them and upgraded them to high definition before placing them on his websites.
An officer close to the probe said that Ravi has been told to list every server he operates and to shut them down as the probe advances.
“He claimed that he purchased the videos posted on platforms like Telegram to clean, enhance and post it on his websites. Even the enhancing part, he says, was done by others for a nominal fee,” said the officer.
Immadi Ravi, 39, a native of Visakhapatnam, and now a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, is the primary accused in the racket. He was arrested from an apartment on Green Hills Road in Kukatpally after Hyderabad Cyber Crimes police traced the backend of the piracy operation.
Cyber Crimes officers said they secured five days of police custody after the Nampally court on November 19 agreed that further interrogation was necessary to unravel the network behind the large-scale piracy ecosystem.
Starting November 20, Ravi is being brought from Chanchalguda jail to the cyber crimes office each day for questioning.
Police said they seized hard drives containing nearly 21,000 films in multiple languages. Investigators estimate he earned around ₹20 crore through the operation, using the proceeds to purchase flats and plots. Roughly ₹3.5 crore from his bank accounts has been frozen as the inquiry continues.
Published – November 21, 2025 06:41 pm IST
