Bharat Jodo Yatra: Bengaluru police book Rahul Gandhi, two others, for copyright violation for using KGF film songs

The Bengaluru City Police on Friday registered an FIR naming Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, Congress social media head Supriya Srinate and Rahul Gandhi on charges of copyright infringement by using movie songs in its Bharat Jodo Yatra without permission from their owner MRT Music.

The Bengaluru-based company, in a press release, said it holds music rights of over 20,000 plus tracks in Kannada, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil etc. It has also invested huge sums of money to acquire classic old music to one of the latest and one of the biggest movies of the year “KGF Chapter 2” in Hindi.

"However the Indian National Congress has picked up the songs from this movie and without seeking MRT Music’s permission/license in any manner whatsoever has used these songs to create their marketing videos of their very latest Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign featuring Rahul Gandhi," the company said in a press release. The Yeshwantpur police have registered an FIR under relevant sections of the IPC, Information Technology Act, 2000 and Copyrights Act, 1957.


"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 legislations for protecting the rights of the common man and businesses," the company's legal counsel said.

MRT Music has filed the present complaint only to enforce its statutory rights and has no intentions to tarnish the image of any political party, the counsel said.

MRT Music partner M Naveen Kumar said, this act on the part of the Congress party sends a completely wrong signal to members of pubic and "is completely contrary to the efforts of safeguarding our copyrights. This grave infringement will be challenged by us to the fullest effort," he said in a press note.