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Hyderabad Police Arrest Alleged iBomma Operator, Unveil Massive Telugu Piracy Network

Police describe a network hoarding 21,000 films, harvesting data from about 5 million users, drawing revenue from ads plus betting referrals.

Overview

  • Immadi (Emandi) Ravi was picked up from a Kukatpally apartment on Friday following a TFCC complaint, with iBomma/Bappam access disrupted and hardware seized.
  • Investigators report roughly 21,000 pirated titles and data on 50 lakh users across nearly 65 mirror sites that relied on domain-hopping, foreign servers, and Telegram-sourced cam prints.
  • Police estimate illegal earnings of about Rs 20 crore, say Rs 3–3.5 crore in bank balances have been frozen, and note ongoing tracing of foreign accounts and possible cryptocurrency flows.
  • The operation allegedly diverted large user traffic to betting platforms such as 1win and 1xbet, prompting warnings about data misuse, cyber fraud, and so-called digital arrests.
  • Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, S.S. Rajamouli and Dil Raju praised the crackdown at a press meet, citing piracy-linked box-office damage to recent releases including Game Changer, OG and Kingdom.