person shall not be liable to any punishment if he proves that the contravention was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such contravention. As such the Commission notes that Mr. Basheer Ahmed and Mr. M.C. Bobby, being the President and General Secretary of OP, respectively, are responsible for the conduct of OP. It is evident that they were involved in the key decisions of OP. Mr. Mukesh Mehta of M/s E4 Entertainment had also categorically stated he was directed by Mr. Basheer Ahmed over the phone to stop providing Tamil movies to the Informant. As a result, a movie namely, „ Raja Rani ‟ which was released at the Informant‟s theatre was taken down after three days. As such, it is evident that Mr. Basheer Ahmed played an active role in enforcing the directives of OP in controlling and restricting the exhibition of new movies across Kerala. Further, Mr. M.C. Bobby, General Secretary of OP, is also responsible for the conduct of OP being in a key position. Moreover, in spite of ample opportunity given to them, they failed to adduce any evidence to establish that the anti-competitive decisions were made without their knowledge or that they had exercised all due diligence to prevent their commissioning.
