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A 40-year-old man once labelled a major figure in India's online piracy world has been formally acquitted after more than a decade of criminal proceedings tied to the defunct torrent site TellyTorrents. TorrentFreak
Background: In the summer of 2015, Pune police arrested Priyank Pardeshi during a visit to India, accusing him of running TellyTorrents a site notorious for hosting pirated Bollywood films, including early leaks of blockbuster Bahubali. At the time, police alleged Pardeshi earned significant revenue from the site and was involved in camcording films in cinemas for piracy distribution. TorrentFreak
Judicial Collapse of the Case: Last week in Jabalpur, a judicial magistrate fully acquitted Pardeshi and two co-accused due to a lack of admissible evidence. The ruling highlighted multiple investigative failures by law enforcement:
- No forensic validation: Devices seized during the investigation were never analysed by an accredited forensic lab.
- No financial trail: Prosecutors could not produce documentation linking Pardeshi to any revenue from the site.
- No ownership evidence: There was no proof he owned the TellyTorrents domain or servers.
- Expert witnesses conceded they had no direct evidence tying him to uploads or operations. TorrentFreak
The court noted that, despite initial media narratives, "there are no documents on record to show that the illegal website TellyTorrents was created/operated by Priyank Pardeshi." TorrentFreak
Systemic Concerns: Legal analysts, including commentator Kartik Sharma of the law blog SpicyIP, suggested that this verdict reflects broader shortcomings in the handling of digital evidence by Indian law enforcement, citing similar acquittals in other piracy cases. TorrentFreak
Human Toll: Pardeshi spent 311 days in custody before bail and says the decade-long case destroyed employment prospects and strained his personal life. One co-accused, Dilip Gulwani, died before the trial concluded. TorrentFreak
As this chapter closes, India's anti-piracy efforts continue, most recently with the arrest of alleged pirate platform operator Immadi Ravi in Hyderabad, connected to the iBomma streaming piracy platform. The Hans India
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