May 16: Audio pirates in the Northeast will soon face the music with the Indian Music Industry (IMI) planning a combat cell in the city.

Savio D’Souza, secretary general of the apex body of top music companies in the country, said here today that the IMI would set up an anti-piracy cell in the city to help police crackdown on pirates and retailers selling pirated products.

The raids will begin in the city and spread to other parts of the region.

“We have information that Pakistani pirates have set up manufacturing units in Bangladesh from where they are pumping pirated cassettes and compact discs into the Northeast market,” he said.

“Taking advantage of the absence of a proper monitoring mechanism, a section of retailers have been dealing in pirated products with impunity. There were 1,160 raids against piracy in the country last year, but not a single raid was carried out here. This indicates that the police are not doing much to curb this illegal practice,” D’Souza said.

The IMI has started the process of appointing a team, comprising a head and two members, to collect information on pirates and their activities.

The team will scout the market, place bogus orders, buy products and then lodge a complaint with police. It will be alert round-the-clock so that the police can net the guilty in time and also help the police to distinguish between original and pirated products.

Senior representatives of the IMI today met former police officials of the state in their hunt for a co-ordinator for the Northeast.

Former supercop Julio Riberio heads the IMI’s all-India anti-piracy cell.

The IMI will also urge the state government to form special force to clampdown on pirates, to bring audio piracy under an act like the Goonda Act in Tamil Nadu and to put pirates in 15-day judicial custody. The IMI also wants an optical disc law to discourage illegal production of CDs.

The IMI also wants to spread awareness among music buffs so that they may identify original cassettes and CDs.