Indian police have seized more than 20,000 pirated books in a major crackdown targeting a large-scale distribution network, according to publishers.
The operation, carried out on March 15, involved collaboration between authorities and major publishing houses including Penguin Random House India, Hay House, and Simon & Schuster India.
Publishers said the raids uncovered a “sophisticated and large-scale distribution operation” involving multiple warehouses and an illegal printing press.
Penguin Random House stated: “The nearly 24-hour operation targeted multiple warehouses as well as an illegal printing press,” adding that it had dealt “a substantial blow to an entrenched piracy network” and marked “one of the largest recent seizures of pirated books” in the capital.
Among the seized titles were works by prominent authors including Arundhati Roy, Haruki Murakami, Yuval Noah Harari, Daniel Kahneman, Simon Sinek, and James Clear. The seizure highlights the scale of book piracy in India, where strong demand for literature continues to fuel illegal reproduction and distribution networks.
