Kodela’s Son Caught In Satellite Piracy

Narasaraopet: The advocate commissioner appointed by the Delhi High court with respect to satellite piracy being indulged in by AP Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva prasada Rao’s son Siva Rama Krishna conducted searches at his K channel office on Thursday.

Officials related to the search are said to have seized devices used in satellite piracy. Speaker Kodela’s son Siva Rama Krishna running the K channel under the firm Gautham communication. It has rights to telecast only ETV and Gemini TV channels. However, his firm has been providing zee, Star and Maa channels through DTH to subscribers without the requisite permissions or tie ups with those channels for the past few years.

If Siva Rama Krishna had obtained permission from the Star Maa networks, he would have had to shell out Rs 39 per subscriber whereas the zee package would have cost Rs 25. The total amount in question would be about Rs 5.46 crores per year apart from GST, according to sources in the industry. However, due to Kodela’s influence, Sivaram indulged in what is a technical offense and collected huge amounts from subscribers without passing on the benefits to the channels in question. Representatives of the Star Plus network had lodged a complaint with the II Town Police two years ago, but because of Kodela’s influence, the police dragged their feet following which the networking approached the Delhi High Court. The court directed an advocate commissioner to study the complaint and submit a report. Members of the court appointed commission visited the K channel office in the speaker’s camp office at Narasaraopet and conducted searches. TDP leaders who came to know of the matter reached the place and got into an argument, but backed off when they were told that any resistance would be treated as contempt of court. With the help of the II Town police, members of the commission seized the encoder and set top boxes related to satellite piracy and shifted them to the police station. Later, an inventory of the seized items was prepared to be submitted to the court. Meanwhile, with a Macherla TDP leader also indulging in similar satellite piracy, it is learnt that members of an advocate commission conducted searches on the office and seized devices related to piracy.

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