mumbai

Updated: Aug 22, 2017 10:08 IST

The four men who were arrested for allegedly leaking the fourth episode of Game of Thrones season seven used Skype — an instant messaging app that provides online text messages and video chat services — to stay in touch, said police. The cyber police have seized their mobile phones and laptops. They are in the process of ascertaining how the episode was leaked and what role each of the accused played.

The accused were produced before a magistrate court on Monday and remanded in police custody till August 24.

Three of them — Bhaskar Joshi, Alok Sharma and Abhishek Ghadiyal — work for the private firm that airs the show in India. The fourth, Mohamad Suhail, is a former employee of that company.

The private firm came under fire after the low-quality episode, which leaked in the first week of August, was found to be bearing its watermark.

Soon after, the firm initiated an internal inquiry and asked police to file a case. The four men were arrested on August 14.

Cyber police said there were three possible motives behind the leak and will question the accused to find out which it was. “We are in the process of gathering evidence against the accused. We are also interrogating them to find out why they leaked the episode. As of now, we see three possible motives. Either they did it to gain monetary rewards, out of sheer excitement to watch the episode exclusively before its release or to tarnish the image of their firm and cause it financial harm,” said a crime branch official monitoring the investigations.