Maharashtra Cyber police nabs engineer behind app streaming content stolen from OTT platforms

Maharashtra Cyber police have arrested a Hyderabad-based IT engineer for allegedly developing and running a mobile application to stream pirated content from various OTT platforms and satellite channels.

Satish Venkateshwarlu, who was arrested from Telangana capital on Monday, has been remanded to seven days of police custody by a court here in Mumbai.

According to police, the 28-year-old has been running the app titled “Thop TV” for the last two years. The app has lakhs of viewers, including 5,000 paid subscribers, they added.

The arrest was made after Viacom 18 Media Private Limited along with another broadcaster approached Maharashtra Cyber with their complaint, alleging that the “rogue, standalone” application had been relaying and transmitting their content without authorisation.