Vimal Sharma, a resident of south Delhi's Pushp Vihar colony, is a regular viewer of Sony TV's latest talent hunt Indian Idol, for free and without a set-top box. Rimi Ahuja, a tenant in the upscale Greater Kailash area also gets to watch her favourite channels like Star Movies and AXN, again for free and without an STB.

Both Vimal and Rimi are residents of areas where the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India introduced the conditional access system for cable viewers in January.

But, the purpose of CAS -- to check piracy -- is defeated, if pay channels can be watched free, as is apparently happening in localities like Devli village near Sainik Farms, Pushp Vihar and Saket, all areas where CAS has been implemented.

About 280,000 cable homes in south Delhi have been 'seeded' with set-top boxes. But industry estimates that another 105,000 receive pirated pay channels.

This "service" from some cable operators is typically available in pockets of 5,000 scattered households and is beamed only at night to escape detection.

How do cable operators do this? Under CAS, a consumer gets to watch pay channels via a set-top box, a mechanism that de-encrypts a pay channel.

What cable operators do is download the popular pay channels through a direct-to-home platform like Dish TV and Tata Sky, decrypt the popular pay channels at their end via a set-top box and send the signals to homes via boosters.

A cable operator in the Sainik Farm area conceded, on condition of anonymity, that because of CAS, his regular revenue collection had dropped about 40 per cent. So, he has managed this informal arrangement, charging a tiny premium of Rs 10 over and above the monthly free-to-air subscription of Rs 77.

Roop Sharma, president of the Cable Operators' Federation of India, denies that cable operators are pirating pay channels.

"Those who wanted set-top boxes have got one. The rest are watching free channels but no piracy of pay channels is taking place. If that's the case, cable operators and MSOs can be arrested."

Leading broadcaster Star TV India, however, acknowledges piracy. "We know that piracy is taking place, but it is up to Trai, the regulator," a senior Star TV official said.