Mumbai: After nearly five years of investigation, Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police has closed a cheating case registered against Yash Raj Films for allegedly pocketing over Rs 100 crore in royalties belonging to lyricists, singers and musicians who performed in their films since 2012.

The police have classified the case as ‘C’ summary, which means it is neither true nor false. This occurs when a criminal case is filed due to a mistake of facts or when offence complained about is of civil nature, making the information given to police is neither true nor false.

EOW’s general cheating cell submitted the closure report before the court concerned last week, stating that there appears to be no misappropriation of money by the accused company.

The report mentioned, “The complainant had alleged that YSF had taken the licence fees from the user company/ exploiters company for songs in the agreement letter or received royalty in another way and they have used it for personal use which is not true. Also, during the course of investigation, it is seen that the amount of royalties paid by the accused company from time to time to songwriters and musicians who are members of the plaintiff have been received/accepted by the plaintiff company.”

The report further stated that the issue has arisen due to lack of clarity in the provisions of the copyright agreement regarding the calculation of song royalty amounts. This lack of clarity or commonality in the law or the provisions of copyright in India has led to legal cases pending in the courts. As a result, it does not appear that any cognizable crime like embezzlement has been committed in the said case. Terms and conditions of contract are related to civil matters, and therefore, court is requested to approve the ‘C’ summary report.

The case, filed by Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) in 2019, accused Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films of allegedly pocketing Rs 100 crore belonging to lyricists, musicians, singers, and music producers. IPRS alleged that the production house prevented it from collecting royalty from telecom companies, radio stations, and music streaming platforms by pressuring artists to sign illegal agreements.