MUMBAI: Maharashtra Cyber has summoned actor Tamannaah Bhatia, also spelt as Tamanna Bhatia, to question her about the unauthorised streaming of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 on the Fairplay App that caused loss of Crores of Rupees to Viacom, as reported by leading news agency ANI that also tweeted on X that she has been asked to appear before Maharashtra Cyber on 29th April.

Maharashtra Cyber the nodal agency for cyber-security and cyber investigation for Maharashtra also tweeted that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was also summoned in this connection on 23rd April but he had not appeared before them. He had, instead, sought a date and time for recording his statement and said that he was not in India on the date.

The complaint Reliance Industries Ltd's media subsidiary, Viacom 18 has asserted that the company possessed exclusive rights to broadcast IPL matches in 2023. However, the online betting app Fairplay allegedly displayed hoardings across Mumbai, broadcasting live telecasts of IPL 2023 without obtaining permission from the broadcasting company. Furthermore, apps were accused of accepting bets on the matches being played.

Fairplay, an alleged subsidiary app of the Mahadev app, gained attention due to endorsements by many Bollywood personalities. According to sources, more than 40 Bollywood celebrities are under scrutiny for promoting Fair play during the IPL 2023.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating several suspicious transactions through hawala channels involving Bollywood celebrities for the promotion and endorsement of betting apps. In a supplementary chargesheet filed in December 2023 in the Mahadev Online Bookcase, the ED alleged that Mahadev Online Book and its sister concerns, namely Fairplay, Reddy Anna, Lotus 365, Laser Book, BetBook247, Gold365, and several other subsidiary apps, would have monthly earnings of Rs 450 crores at an average rate of Rs 3 lakh earnings per panel per month.

The Delhi High Court had earlier in March given Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Industries Ltd's media subsidiary, Viacom 18, a significant legal victory as the media company received a dynamic injunction, which prevented multiple websites from illegally streaming IPL matches. In the order, Justice Sanjeev Narula had said, "During the currency of the IPL events, if any further websites are discovered which are illegally streaming and communicating content over which the Plaintiff has rights, the Plaintiff is given liberty to communicate the details of such websites to the DoT and MeitY for issuance of blocking orders, and simultaneously to the ISPs for blocking the said websites, so as to ensure that these websites can be blocked on a real-time basis there is no considerable delay,"