Earlier this Thursday, the Madras High Court decided not to grant bail to two accused in the high-profile case related to Jana Nayagan's leak, reports The Hindu. The decision came after the prosecution revealed that a staggering 1.2 crore individuals have watched the film, starring Vijay and directed by H Vinoth, through the internet before its censorship certification.

Justice Kumarappan of Madras HC dismissed the petitions for bail filed by Rajini and Jayaprakash, the fourth and eleventh accused, respectively, in the case. The court took serious note of the prosecution's submission that the prime accused, also a freelance editor, had allegedly stolen the film's clips with a hard disk drive from an editing suite before uploading these to Google Drive.

According to the government counsel, the prime accused alongside his two siblings played an instrumental role in stitching the clips into a single file before uploading it. The content quickly made its way onto notorious piracy websites, including Tamil Rockers, resulting in over 12 million views before authorities managed to block the links.

In a parallel move, KVN Productions, the film's production banner, had already approached the High Court with a civil suit. Consequently, they landed an interim injunction that restrained every Internet Service Provider in India from facilitating the unauthorised exhibition of the film.

Opposing the bail pleas, the state counsel argued that two other accused in the Jana Nayagan leak case remain at large, stressing that their apprehension is vital to uncovering the network behind the piracy racket. While law enforcement has apprehended the fourth and eleventh accused, the prosecution sought their ongoing incarceration as being "absolutely necessary". There are 21 accused in the case.

The state expressed strong apprehensions that the accused, if released on account of their prolonged custody, could tamper with crucial evidence and influence witnesses. The court was also informed that the police have only filed a preliminary charge sheet at the trial court thus far, and that the investigation remains ongoing.