https://youtu.be/m_gnlQJsWkg?si=cva6YHuhzcNJSRrN [02/05, 16:11] sekarreporter1: IN THE COURT OF PRINCIPAL SESSIONS JUDGE, CHENNAI Present :Thiru.S.Karthikeyan, M.A., M.L., M.Sc., PGDCFSc., PGDDF., Principal Sessions Judge. Thursday, the 30th day of April, 2026. Crl.M.P.Nos.3737, 3759, 3776, 3915/2026 and Crl.M.P.Nos.4071, 4069 and 4068/2026 (Intervene Petitions) in Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) Crime No.47/2026 Srinath @ Sriram .. Petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3737/2026 / Accused 1. Sanjay 2. Bala @ Balakrishnan 3. Manigandan 4. Ruthran .. Petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026 / Accused Rajesh .. Petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3776/2026 / Accused 1. Prasanth 2. Selvam 3. Rajini .. Petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3915/2026 / Accused Vs. State Rep. by The Inspector of Police, CCD-I, CCW-SCCIC Chennai. ..Respondent/Complainant. This petition is coming on this day before this court for hearing in the presence of M/s.G.Prabhakaran, K.Ram Sankar, S.Jayaprakash,

[02/05, 16:10] sekarreporter1:

[02/05, 16:11] sekarreporter1:

IN THE COURT OF PRINCIPAL SESSIONS JUDGE, CHENNAI
Present :Thiru.S.Karthikeyan, M.A., M.L., M.Sc., PGDCFSc., PGDDF., Principal Sessions Judge.
Thursday, the 30th day of April, 2026.
Crl.M.P.Nos.3737, 3759, 3776, 3915/2026 and
Crl.M.P.Nos.4071, 4069 and 4068/2026 (Intervene Petitions) in
Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) Crime No.47/2026
Srinath @ Sriram .. Petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3737/2026 / Accused
1. Sanjay
2. Bala @ Balakrishnan
3. Manigandan
4. Ruthran .. Petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026 /
Accused
Rajesh .. Petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3776/2026 / Accused
1. Prasanth
2. Selvam
3. Rajini .. Petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3915/2026 /
Accused
Vs.
State Rep. by
The Inspector of Police,
CCD-I, CCW-SCCIC Chennai. ..Respondent/Complainant.
This petition is coming on this day before this court for hearing in the presence of M/s.G.Prabhakaran, K.Ram Sankar, S.Jayaprakash, T.Mayakrishnan, the counsel for the petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3737/2026 and of M/s.I.V.Kabilan, J.Vikash, M.Anbarasu and M.Sai Suri, the counsel for the petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026 and of M/s.B.Sundarapandiyan, J.Kamalini, S.Sugumar and S.Manisha, the counsel for the petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3776/2026 and of M/s.R.Rajadurai, A.Nazar and
S.Susairaj, the counsel for the petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3915/2026 and of the CPP for respondent police and of M/s.L.Infant Dinesh, Vijayan Subramanian, A.John and A.Arun Prasanth, the counsel for the intervenor and upon hearing both sides, this Court delivered the following,
COMMON ORDER
The petitioners in Crl.M.P.Nos.3737, 3759, 3776/2026, who were arrested on 11.04.2026 and the petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3915/2026, who was arrested on 15.04.2026 for the offences punishable under Section 306, 316(2) r/w 61(2) BNS and u/s 43, 66, 66B, 66C r/w 84B of I.T.Act and u/s 51, 63(a), 65, 65A, 65B of
Copyright Act and u/s 6AB r/w Sec.7(1A) of Cinematograph Act in Crime
No.47/2026 on the file of the respondent police, seek bail.
2. The respective counsels for the petitioners submitted that according to the prosecution one Mr. Uday Kumar, Production Controller of KVN Production, lodged the complaint before the State Cyber Crime Unit stating that KVN Production has produced the movie Jananayagan, which stars Vijay and other prominent actors. The film is yet to be certified by CBFC for theatrical release. Suddenly, the entire movie was leaked on social media by these petitioners.
According to the complainant, one of the freelance editors who worked with Mr.Pradeep, who is the editor of the Jananayagan film illegally has stolen the digital files of the Jananayagan movie from a hard disk kept at the studio and shared the same with his friend, one Uma Shankar. The said Uma Shankar circulated the said movie to several persons and ultimately leaked on social media. According to the learned counsel for the petitioners, in fact, the said movie was copied in a Google Drive and forwarded to many persons, they are one among them. They are not responsible for the stealing of the movie or releasing of the same on social media. Therefore, they pray for bail.
3. Per contra, the learned CPP has submitted that on 11.04.2026, at 1:00 AM, thedefacto complainant has lodged a complaint with the State Cyber Crime Wing, stating that M/s KVN Productions LLP is the producer and copyright owner of the feature film ‘Jananayagan’, featuring leading artists like Vijay, Prakash Raj, and other prominent actors. The production cost of the said movie is running into several hundred crores of rupees. The entire film, including production footage and internal visual material, is strictly protected and is not intended for any public dissemination prior to the official theatrical release. To the utmost shock and surprise of the production company, certain scenes from the said unreleased film Jananayagan have been unlawfully accessed, downloaded, copied, and forwarded to several persons illegally. The said leaked scenes are futher circulated or uploaded through digital platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp groups, websites, torrent services, or anonymous channels, etc. The damage caused to the producer would be irreparable. The theatrical value, satellite value, OTT rights, overseas distribution rights, and overall market value of the film would suffer an enormous prejudice, directly affecting contracts and obligations and the severe financial loss.
4. The learned CPP has further submitted that in the complaint, there were 21 accused named, they are : 1. Pradheep, 2. Stalin 3. Ganesh, 4, Selva, 5. Bala,
6.Sriram, 7.Nalini, 8.Rajesh, 9.Jayaprakash, 10, Ruthuran, 11. Sanjay, 12. Bhagu, 13.Mani, 14.Navarasanayagan, 15.Rocky, 16, Titoo, 17.Bob Bro, 18, Pradeep Kumar, 19. Dhilip, 20.Suraj and 21.Bala Pase. Based on the complaint, investigation was initiated by the respondent police. During the course of investigation, it is found that one Google link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cXzkAXBjeTropPBhcVLIDMHzmxVk4kwG/iew? usp=drive.link was titled as Janayaan Film Video uploaded by one Bala, having the Instagram page of bala-str. He and his technical team downloaded the film video in a pen drive and found that Uma Shankar, Rajesh (Petitioner in
Crl.M.P.No.3776/2026), Sriram @ Sreenath (Petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3737/2026),
Sanjay (1st petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026), Bala, (2nd petitioner in
Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026, Ruthran (4th petitioner in Crl.M.P.N.3759/2026), Manikandan (3rd petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.3759/2026), are involved in uploading an unlicensed/unauthorized, water marked video on WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media links and spreading the video through multiple social media platforms, thereby causing huge financial loss to the production company and the Director.
5. The learned CPP has further submitted that the said Google link was created byBala @ Balakrishnan, the 2nd petitioner in Crl.M.P.No.2759/2026. The said Bala uploaded the video to his Google Drive, created the link, and shared it with his associates Sanjay, Manikandan, Rudhran (the other petitioners in Criminal M.P. Number 3759 of 2026) and many others. The petitioner in Criminal M.P.Number 3776 of 2026 received the unauthorized release of the Jananayagam video from
Uma Shankar. He copied the said video, shared it with friends, and uploaded it on Tamilmovies.com, as well as various other websites and social media pages, with the intention of earning money through the viewers of these pages.
6. The learned CPP has further submitted that the petitioner in
Crl.M.P.No.3915/2026 Rajini is the co-brother of Editor Prasanth, who copied the film at E Studios. The said Prashanth, Selvam & Rajini (the petitioners in Crl.M.P.No.3915 and 3916) and Uma Shankar, had a previous plan to upload the film in various unauthorized websites and social media platforms, and thereby, they planned to earn huge money. Rajini’s mobile phone reveals that he has searched many data in online sites “how to escape from copyright law and IT amendment law, once copied the unreleased cine film”. Therefore, according to the learned CPP, all the accused joined together, conspired to release the uncertified the film Jananayagam in socila platform and online platform unauthorisedly and executed the said plan and thereby earned huge sums of money. Therefore, he stongly opposed the grant of bail to the petitioners.
4. This court has given its thoughtful consideration to the submissions putforth by both sides. As per the allegations, the petitioners are instrumental in the copying and releasing of the film in social media platforms and online platforms without any authorization, before its certification by the CBFC. Though the lerned counsels for the petitioners submitted that they are only the receivers of Google Drive link, and they have nothing to do with release of the said film in the online and social media platforms, from the submissions of the learned City Public Prosecutor, it is found that the petitioners herein are actively involved in releasing the said movie in online and social media platforms with an intention to earn huge profits by way of viewers. From the submissions of the lerned CPP, it is found that the investigation is in its initial stage. A deep and thorough investigation is required in this case to unearth the entire network of the conspiracy hatched in this case. Considering the above serious allegations and the current stage of investigation, this court is not inclined to grant bail to the petitioners.
5. Accordingly the petitions are dismissed.
Dictated to Steno-typist, typed by him directly, corrected and pronounced by me in open court this the 30th of April, 2026.
ss Principal Sessions Judge