Media365
A major data-theft case surfaced at Tiger Baby Digital LLP in Mumbai, the production house founded by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. As per reports, dozens of hard disks containing crucial production and post-production material allegedly went missing from the company’s office in Bandra. In the probe, it was found out that the theft was carried over a period of several months. The police has apprehended two in connection with the case.
The theft came to light on Monday after Mehjabeen Shaikh, an executive assistant at Tiger Baby Digital LLP, lodged a formal complaint at the Bandra police station regarding the missing hard disks. The police zeroed in on Mohammed Shahid Azim Khan (28), an office boy working at Tiger Baby Digital LLP and living in Vakola in Santacruz, who sold the storage devices to Ritesh Suresh Shah, a 44-year-old stationery shop employee.
It was found that Khan had systematically stolen 24 hard drives over the last five months alone, selling each device to Shah for anywhere between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000. The loss incurred from the sale of 66 hard disks would amount to over ₹13 lakh. Initial estimates suggest that more than 100 hard disks went missing from the production company’s office over the past few months.
The cost of this theft could be huge for the production house if the disks contain possible leak of unreleased content linked to films, OTT projects and advertising campaigns. It is said that highly sensitive data, including raw footage, edited scenes, post-production files, backups, archival material, advertisement projects and completed movie-related content was on the stolen drives. Some of the material was linked to unreleased film and OTT projects under the Tiger Baby banner.
The duo of Khan and Shah has been booked under section 306 (theft by employee) and other relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act and remanded in police custody till May 29.
