Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Monday after they allegedly found evidence against him for producing porn films. The cops told in the court on Tuesday that the businessman was involved in making pornographic material by hiring women. The videos were then streamed on an app called “Hotshots”.
He is put under police custody till Friday after being arrested following his former personal assistant’s mention of the 45-year-old. Kundra was termed as a “key conspirator” by the police, adding that they had enough proof against him. Evidence in the form of clips too were found from Kundra’s office, the cops said.
The app that streamed the porn content, “Hotshots”, has now been removed from both Google Play Store and Apple store today.
A day after his arrest, the businessman’s IT head, Ryan Thorpe, was also arrested.
Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police, Milind Bharambe told the media, “We found agreement papers, emails, accounts WhatsApp chats and pornographic clips from his office during the search.”
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The incident was brought to light after a woman named Gahna Vashist was arrested. She then mentioned Kundra’s ex-PA Umesh Kamat, which took the police till Shilpa Shetty’s husband and revealed his role in the scandal, the cops said in the court.
However, Kundra has denied the allegations, saying that the app “Hotshots” was sold to Pradip Bakshi, a man wanted in another case by the police. Nevertheless, he regularly kept checking the finances of the application, the police said. Kundra had also created a WhatsApp group to discuss the production, selling and distribution of the porn videos.
The woman, Gahna Vashisht and Kundra former PA Umesh Kamat together shot the porn clips, wrote scripts and kept Kundra in the loop in mails consisting of the scripts, the cops said.
The women in these videos were forced to shoot porn after being brought on the false promise of giving roles in web series. Each was given about Rs 10,000 for the shooting.
Cheating and “obscene and indecent advertisements and displays” are charged against Kundra apart from charges under the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. If proved, these could imprison Kundra for 5-7 years. Another 9 people have been arrested in connection with the case till now.
Police investigations said Shilpa Shetty had no active role in the case.
Gahna was arrested after a woman came to the police on February 4th and registered a case for being forced to do porn films on the pretext of giving an acting opportunity, a police official said.
Umesh Kamat was caught posting objectionable videos on the app through a UK company leading to his arrest. Interrogations revealed Kundra’s involvement. This UK firm was established by Kundra, who has been named in match-fixing during IPL, and his brother for escaping Indian cyber laws and uploading porn videos easily.
Though watching pornography privately is legal in India, publishing and distributing “obscene material” can have serious consequences as laws against it are very strict.
These porn films were shot in India in rented hotels and houses of Mumbai and transferred to the UK through WeTransfer. They were then posted on paid mobile applications.
