New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS): The owner of a printing press has been arrested from east Delhi's Shahdara area over his alleged involvement in the piracy of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books, the Delhi Police said.

According to the police, Manoj Jain, 38, was arrested with printed material worth Rs 34 lakh.

Police said that a raid was conducted at Jain's printing press in East Nathu colony in Shahdara area on September 18 and a huge quantity of pirated finished and semi-finished NCERT books were recovered. However, the accused had then managed to flee.

Subsequently, an FIR was registered on September 19, under section 420, 468, 473 under Indian Penal Code and section 63, 65 under the Copyright Act.

The police said the step was taken after complaints were received alleging that several schools were allegedly compelling students to purchase costly books of private publishers.

Police said the management of the schools were allegedly getting hefty monetary benefits by the publishers in lieu of prescribing their books.

Due to this, there was a sudden rise in demand for the NCERT books. Unscrupulous elements exploited the situation by getting printed pirated books and roped in the sellers by offering them higher profit margin.

"An information was received that poor quality pirated books are being supplied in market at cheaper rates causing huge revenue loss to the NCERT. The offset unit is publishing pirated NCERT books from 6th to 12th standard of different subjects," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime branch) Rajesh Deo.