Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has defended her businessman-husband Raj Kuinde, whjo has been named as a “key conspirator” in the scam involving the producing and streaming of pornographic films on mobile and other Apps, by saying that Kundra’s HotShots App did not have pornographic content and that all content was of bold and erotic in nature.
Shilpa, who was questioned by the Mumbai Crime branch sleuths on Friday evening, distanced herself from husband’s firm M/s Viaan Industries Ltd, of which Kundra is the owner and she used to be the co-owner, while Pradeep Bakshi Bakshi — a British citizen, who is married to Kundra’s sister — is the Chairman of Kenrin Ltd., London.
In defence of herself and her husband, Shilpa – who has made come back into films through “Hungama 2” released on an OTT platform, reportedly told the police that “content on Raj Kundra's App was not pornography but erotica. He is innocent”.
Kundra, who was arrested on July 19, was on Friday remanded in police custody till July 27.
The crime branch sleuths of the Mumbai police have seized 48 TB worth of images and videos, most of which is adult content.
During their investigations, the investigators have traced a record of transactions - from an account in Yes Bank registered to Mr Kundra to one in the United Bank of Africa.
They suspect money was accrued from the sale of pornographic content. A sum of ` 7.5 crore has been seized so far.
Following a raid conducted on February 4 this year by them on a private bungalow at picturesque Madh Island at Malad (west) in north Mumbai where a porn film was being shot, the Malwani police registered a case in pornographic movie racket. It was a tip-off from an affected woman who approached the police with her grievance that led to the raid.
After initial investigation, the Mumbai Police handed the case to the Property Cell of Crime Branch-CID for further probe during which the name of United Kingdom-based Pradeep Bakshi, the brother-in-law of Kundra, surfaced.
Meanwhile, Kundra has moved the Bombay High Court challenging his arrest and seeking dismissal of the lower court's order on extending police custody on that distinction.
His petition also claims he was arrested after being summoned to the police station "under the garb of recording his statement".
On their part, the Mumbai Crime branch sleuths have uncovered the conspiracy behind the making and streaming of pornographic videos through an app called "Hotshots" and also OTT platforms by putting up advertisements on social media platforms.
The investigators have also recovered the messages from as WhatsApp group run by Kundra to deal with money accrued from the porn movies produced by them. The group was named “H AAccounts” and had Kundra as its admin with four other members: Pradeep Bakshi, Rob Digital Marketing Hotshot, Raw Evans. They have found some incriminating messages relevant to the case being investigated by them.
The distribution and marketing strategy adopted by Kundra and team was to send the videos produced in Mumbai through an application to Kenrin Production in the UK to avoid legal issues in India. Kenrin Production would edit and upload the pornographic films Hotshot. Kenrin was allegedly funding the porn film production through agents based in India.
The HotShots app --- described as the “world’s first 18+ app” showcasing some of the hottest models and celebs globally in exclusive photos, short films and hot videos (implying soft-to-hard porn) – was removed from mobile platforms. Similarly, Apple and Google have removed the app because of the pornographic content in it.
In all, eleven persons – including Kundra, his aide Ryan John Tharpe and Kamat, have been arrested in connection with the pornography racket. They are: TV actress Gehna Vashisht (32) Yasmin Baig Khan alias Rowa Khan (40) Monu Joshi (28) Pratibha Nalavade (33) Atif Ahmed (24), Shaan Banerjee alias Dipankar Khasnavis (38), Bhanusuryam Thakur ( 26) Tanvir Hashmi (40) and Umesh Kamat (39).
Model-actress Gehana Vashisth, while Yasmin Rowa Khan was the producer-director. Kamat was the frontman for Kundra. Pratibha was the graphic designer, Joshi was cameraman.
Gahna and Kamat were both involved in producing and shooting porn, writing scripts; they also sent copies of their scripts to Kundra.
In a related development, Gehna – who is currently on bail – has claimed that she was arrested wrongly in the case. "Those videos are just adult videos. They are of erotic nature. None of them falls under the category of porn," she said.
On their part, the investigators are examining call records on her phone and information on her laptop both of which they seized.
