The businessman and husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra, was arrested on Monday by Mumbai police in a case related to the alleged production of pornographic films and their publication through certain apps a senior official said.
Kundra (45), arrested by the Crime Section after being registered under the relevant articles of the ICC and the Information Technology Act, appears to be the main conspirator in the case, he said.
“There was a case registered with a branch of Mumbai crime dept in February 2021 regarding creating pornographic films and their publication via certain apps. In this case, we arrested Mr. Raj Kundra on July 18, 2021, as he seems to be the main conspirator of this. So we have enough evidence on this,” Mumbai’s police commissioner said in a statement.
The case was registered on February 4 at Malwani police station, a suburb of Mumbai. An FIR was registered against Kundra after a woman approached the police and made some allegations in her complaint, another official said. “On this basis, the FIR was registered, and the case was transferred to the Crime Service.
Earlier, the property cell had arrested Umesh Kamat, who had stated in his statement that he was working in Kundra’s company.
Kamat lives in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, and his name appeared during the interrogation of model and actress Gehana Vasisth who was arrested on February 6. Kamat used to work for a UK-based company as a coordinator and used to take obscene videos from Vasisth and send those videos to the UK-based company which would later upload them to an app called “hotshots,” the police chief said.
The obscene videos were then uploaded to mobile applications and several other pornographic sites by the accused. Initially, the police arrested people during a raid. One of those arrested was Rowa Khan alias Yasmeen who claimed to be a producer-director; photographer Monu Sharma and creative director Pratibha Nalawade as well as two actors, Arish Shaikh and Bhanu Thakur.
After interviewing them, the role of actress Vasisth was also found in the creation and downloading of obscene videos on the mobile app, she was also arrested in this case. The police seized several instruments worth Rs 5.68 Lakh that was used to shoot in the bungalow, including the accused’s mobile phones. During an investigation, police learned that Khan ran a “HotHit Movies” mobile app where she downloaded pornographic videos.
Also earlier, we had recorded pornography-related cases in which an actress and others were charged,” he said. “We will investigate the Raj Kundra case and find out if there is a link between this and the pornography cases we had recorded earlier,” the official said.
Kundra was reserved under articles 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), 292 and 293 (related to obscene and indecent advertisements and postings) in addition to the relevant articles of the Information Technology Law and the Law on the Prohibition of indecent representation of women, he added. A more thorough investigation was underway, the official added.
In 2013, Raj grabbed the media spotlight after he was questioned by Delhi Police in connection with a betting and match fixing scandal that rocked the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League cricket tournament. He is co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals team.
Shilpa and Raj tied the knot in 2009, after dating for a couple of months. They have two sons, a son and a daughter.
