Man arrested for posting video of watching 'Jana Nayagan' leaked version inside counting centre

T Yuvaraj, who was employed on contractual basis at the counting centre at Anna University posted a picture of him watching the movie on his Facebook account.

Chennai: Posting an image of his watching the leaked version of Jana Nayagan, actor Vijay’s cinematic swansong, on social media while on duty at the CCTV surveillance room at one of the voting-centres here has landed 31-year-old T Yuvaraj in jail. 

Police said Yuvaraj, who has been employed on contractual basis at the counting centre at Anna University here, had downloaded the leaked version of the movie on his laptop on the night of April 23 and watched it. 

He did not stop there – he posted a picture of him watching the movie on his Facebook account. The man had previously posted a picture of his identity card issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for his employment till the votes polled in the April 23 elections are counted.  

Electronic voting machines (EVMs) from five Assembly constituencies -- Saidapet, Virugambakkam, Velachery, T Nagar and Mylapore -- are stored at the Anna University.

Police said Yuvaraj, who hailed from Thiruvarur district and working as a CCTV head for a private firm here, was arrested based on the picture he posted on social media. “We've secured him for enquiry. We're investigating the case,” a senior police officer told DH.

A high-definition (HD) print of the movie was leaked online on April 10 even as the film is stuck with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). 

Scenes from the movie, which was to be released in January, but got delayed due to censor issues, were shared on several social media platforms including X.

Bengaluru-based KVN Productions, which bank-rolled the high-budget movie, acknowledged that certain scenes from the film Jana Nayagan have been illegally accessed, downloaded, copied and circulated by certain persons and forwarded to several third parties, creating a serious threat of digital leakage through various social media platforms.