Game of Thrones Hotstar leak: Indian police arrest 4 people for leaking unaired episode 4 of season 7

Indian police have reportedly arrested 4 people suspected of having leaked an unaired episode of HBO's immensely popular show Game of Thrones. The 4 arrested include 3 current and 1 former employee of a Mumbai-based company Prime Focus, which legally handles the storage and processing of the show for the Indian steaming website Hotstar, BBC reported.

The arrests, however, do not relate to the recent HBO hack, which involved a hacker group going by the pseudonym Mr.Smith claiming to have stolen 1.5TB worth of files from the network. The hacker group recently released unaired episodes from 10 HBO shows and have previously also leaked unaired Game of Thrones episodes from the show's latest season.

"We investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorised publication of the fourth episode from season seven," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan told AFP. The 4 individuals have reportedly been accused of criminal breach of trust and computer-related offences and will be detained till 21 August.

The episode in question, titled "The Spoils of War," was leaked on 4 August by a Reddit user, just a day before it was scheduled to air globally. The Redditor allegedly claimed to have hailed from Pakistan. However, the arrests reveal that the leak was caused by insiders at HBO's distribution partner Star India.

Meanwhile, the HBO hackers, Mr.Smith, continue their attack and have threatened more leaks. The hackers also recently leaked emails from HBO, allegedly detailing the network's attempt to pay off the hackers with $250,000 (£192,827), disguised as a bug bounty program.