The suspects were apparently affiliated with a Mumbai-based company called Prime Focus Technologies, a technology vendor for HBO's India distribution partner Star India.
The leak itself occurred on August 3, when the fourth episode of Game of Thrones’ seventh season was made available on several torrent websites several days before its official release.
"We investigated the case and have arrested four individuals for unauthorized publication of the fourth episode from season seven," Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan said, according to AFP.
While the authorities appeared eager to complete the investigation and punish the people responsible, some social media users were actually amused by this development and even praised the leakers’ efforts.
goodmorning/goodnight, especially to that person in india who leaked the new episode of #GameOfThrones. you a real one. leak it all.
— و (@wizzle93) 6 августа 2017 г.
Spoilers from the east, spoilers from the west. But episode is from India 😂😂 #GoTS7e4 #GameOfThrones
— Karthik Avineni (@avin_46) 6 августа 2017 г.
If anyone in India is reading this, please leak episode 6 of Game Of Thrones
— Benjamin K (@kurtbenji) 14 августа 2017 г.
It should be noted that earlier in August, a hacker group managed to breach HBO's digital security and snatch over 1.5 terabytes of data, allegedly including episodes from Game of Thrones and other series.
