Men who leaked Game of Thrones season 7 episodes were too curious to wait

Probe reveals accused committed crime as they didn't want to wait till the official broadcast date

Curiosity surely killed the cat for the accused caught for leaking an episode of the popular fantasy drama Game of Thrones. The Mumbai Crime Branch's investigations into the leak have revealed they didn't want to wait till the official broadcast date to watch the episode, which is why they committed the crime. The episode had leaked online on August 4, before its release date of August 7.

The fourth episode of the popular fantasy drama was leaked by the four accused. Representation pic

The cyber police have recently filed an over 600-page chargesheet against Abhishekh Ghadiyal, Bhaskar Joshi, Alok Sharma, employees of the complainant firm Prime Focus Technologies, and Mohammed Suhail, an ex-employee.

Police investigations revealed the key role of Suhail, who used his previous official email ID to get the episode. With the help of an admin password provided by Ghadiyal, the company's senior test engineer in Bangalore, he entered the system and gained unauthorized access to the GoT file.

Police said that the accused allegedly downloaded the low-resolution file while the Mumbai and Bangalore offices of the company were processing it. Probe indicated that two parallel attempts were made to gain unauthorised access to the file. The Ghadiyal Joshi-Suhail group made one, while Alok Sharma made the other.

Ghadiyal, Joshi and Suhail then viewed the episode. "They also watched the previous episodes in a similar fashion as they were too excited and didn't want to wait," said an officer.

Who leaked it?
Sharma, on the other hand, created a URL and sent it on WhtasApp to a female friend who also works in the same organisation. Apart from her, he also sent the URL to a few other friends. Eventually, the link leaked online. Some technical reports are awaited to know who leaked the URL online. DCP (Cyber) Akbar Pathan said, "The accused have been charged under sections 408, 109, 201 and 34 of Indian Penal Code and 43 and 66 of the IT Act." So far probe has revealed that financial gain in anyway was not the motive behind the leak. Laptops and other equipment used for the offence have been seized and all four accused are in judicial custody.

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