Bengaluru: A case has been filed by a Bengaluru-based music company against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Supriya Srinate and Jairam Ramesh for copyright infringement.
MRT Music stated in its complaint that it invested huge sums of money to acquire the rights of songs from the superhit film ‘KGF 2’ in Hindi. The company claimed that Congress has used songs from the movie as part of marketing videos of Bharat Jodo Yatra, without taking its permission.
An FIR has been registered against the three leaders and Indian National Congress (INC) under sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 120 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 34 (common intention) of IPC, Section 66 of Information Technology Act, 2000 and Section 63 of Copyrights Act, 1957.
Narasimhan Sampath, the counsel representing the music platform, said a complaint has been filed against the Congress represented by its general secretary Jairam Ramesh, Supriya Shrinate and Rahul Gandhi for infringement of copyrights owned by MRT Music.
“The complaint mainly pertains to the unlawful fraudulent and illegal actions of the members of the steering committee in so far as violating the copyrights owned by MRT Music. The INC has created a video by unlawfully downloading and synchronising and broadcasting the songs pertaining to the movie KGF – Chapter 2 in Hindi and portraying it to be owned by the INC. They have also used a logo namely ‘Bharath Jodo Yatra’ in the said video and have broadcasted the same on their official social media handles,” said MRT Music’s lawyer Narasimhan Sampath.
“These unlawful actions committed by a national political party reflects their blatant disregard to the rule of law and the rights of private individuals and entities while they are conducting this Bharath Jodo Yatra to seek an opportunity to govern the county and frame legislation for protecting the rights of the common man and businesses,” Sampath further stated, adding the complaint has been filed only to enforce its statutory rights and has no intentions to “tarnish the image of any political party.”
