Penguin Random House, the publisher of the book also supported the army veteran.
Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon (Retired) spent over a year penning 'Kitne Ghazi Aaye, Kitne Ghazi Gaye', a book based on his 40 years of Army service. However, in a shocking turn of events, the book was "unethically and unlawfully" pirated and has left the army veteran extremely hurt. He took to Twitter and posted an emotional video asking others to reject piracy.
"I wrote a book spending 8760 hours, 236 people worked on printing more than 1,10,00,000 pages (numbers increased since recording). It's being unethically & unlawfully pirated affecting the lives of 10,000 people, including salespersons across stores. I feel hurt. Say NO to piracy. Jai Hind," he said.
In the clip, Lt Gen KJS Dhillon (Retired) is seen holding multiple placards. He alternates between them throughout the two-minute video, pleading with viewers to "put an end to piracy!"
In another tweet, he said, "I have always taken all challenges head on incl Pulwama. Will never give in to these unscrupulous, unethical, unlawful thieves stealing other ppl's property. Jai Hind."
Penguin Random House, the publisher of the book also supported the army veteran. Penguin India took to the microblogging site and wrote, "Penguin India stands by Lt. Gen KJS Dhillon and the team, all of who have worked so hard on his brilliant book and do not deserve this injustice."
Since being shared, his tweet has amassed over four lakh views and six thousand likes.
Army veteran Ved Malik said, "You have many like me in company. Piracy of books is yet another crime and curse. Unfortunately, it is not taken seriously by law enforcers yet." To this, Lt Gen KJS Dhillon said, "Thank you sir for your support . Can not imagine how these unethical & unscrupulous pirates face their children and grandchildren.. what values they teach to the youngsters."
"Piracy is open theft it is legally a crime ,if we are doing it ,or using pirated pdf it is equivalent to doing a crime ,stop piracy be Loyal to safeguard the rights of a writer and chain of people who are devoted to perform this fruit of hardwork," commented a person.
"Say no to piracy! Support the hard work and creativity of creators by purchasing their work legally. Piracy not only harms the creators, but also affects the quality and availability of future content. Let's respect intellectual property," added another person.