A
company
of
businessman
Raj
Kundra,
arrested
in
a
porn
films
case,
was
running
operations
for
a
London-based
firm
floated
by
a
close
relative
which
was
into
producing
pornographic
content
for
India,
the
Mumbai
police
claimed
on
Tuesday.
Kundra
(45),
husband
of
Bollywood
actor
Shilpa
Shetty,
was
arrested
by
the
crime
branch
on
Monday
night
in
a
case,
which
it
said,
related
to
alleged
creation
of
pornographic
films
and
publishing
them
through
some
apps.
On
Tuesday,
he
was
produced
before
a
court
which
remanded
him
in
police
custody
till
July
23.
Kundra's
Viaan
Industries
had
a
tie-up
with
London-based
company
Kenrin,
which
owns
'Hotshots'
app,
allegedly
involved
in
publishing
pornographic
films,
a
senior
police
official
said.
"Though
the
company
was
registered
in
London,
the
content
creation,
operation
of
the
app
and
accounting
was
done
through
Kundra's
Viaan
Industries," said
Milind
Bharambe,
Joint
Commissioner
of
Police
(Crime),
at
a
press
briefing.
Kenrin
is
owned
by
the
brother-in-law
of
Kundra,
he
said.
The
police
have
gathered
evidence
which
establishes
connections
between
the
two
business
entities,
the
officer
said.
They
have
found
their
WhatsApp
groups,
e-mail
exchanges,
accounting
details
and
some
pron
films
after
a
search
of
Kundra's
Mumbai
office.
Bharambe
said.
"As
incriminating
evidence
was
collected
in
this
case,
we
arrested
Raj
Kundra
and
his
IT
head
Ryan
Thorpe,"
he
said,
adding
"our
probe
in
the
case
is
on".
On
Monday,
the
police
had
described
Kundra
as
the
"key
conspirator"
of
the
case,
which
was
registered
on
February
4
at
the
Malwani
police
station
in
suburban
Mumbai.
Speaking
about
the
delay
in
Kundra's
arrest
in
the
case
in
which
a
charge-sheet
was
filed
in
April,
Bharambe
said
there
were
many
electronic
evidence
to
be
scanned
to
build
a
strong
case.
Transfer
of
money,
real
ownership
of
accounts,
the
content
and
publisher
were
to
be
verified
before
the
police
could
take
coercive
action,
he
added.
The
police
found
transfer
of
money
in
various
bank
accounts,
Bharambe
said,
adding
victims
of
the
porn
films
racket
used
to
get
only
a
few
thousands
rupees.
During
the
investigation,
it
came
to
light
that
a
company
named
Armsprime
had
prepared
the
app
(Hotshots)
for
Kenrin
and
there
were
individual
apps
also,
he
said.
Viaan
Industries
had
an
agreement
with
Kenrin
about
the
responsibility
of
content
creation
and
money
for
that
used
to
be
transferred
to
Kundra's
firm
by
the
UK-based
entity,
the
police
officer
said.
Subscription
money
(for
using
apps)
used
to
come
in
the
name
of
Kenrin
though
the
management
was
from
Mumbai,
he
said.
Before
the
Mumbai
crime
branch
took
over
the
case,
there
was
a
complaint
with
the
Maharashtra
Cyber
about
the
racket,
Bharambe
said.
The
Malwani
police
had
filed
FIRs
on
the
basis
of
complaints
received
from
two
women,
while
another
one
woman
had
submitted
a
complaint
at
the
Lonavla
Police
Station,
around
120km
from
Mumbai,
he
said.
The
Mumbai
crime
branch
had
started
investigation
into
the
case
after
some
victims
approached
the
Malwani
police
station
in
February
2021,
he
said.
During
investigation
it
came
to
light
that
some
small-time
artistes
were
lured
by
giving
them
break
in
some
web
series
or
short
stories,
he
said.
These
actors
were
called
for
auditions
and
were
asked
to
give
'bold' scenes,
which
later
turned
out
to
be
semi
nude
or
nude
scenes,
which
were
against
the
wishes
of
the
actors,
Bharambe
said.
During
the
investigation,
it
also
came
to
light
that
there
were
many
porn-related
apps
which
were
operating
in
the
cyber
world,
he
said.
The
police
then
arrested
producer
Roma
Khan,
her
husband,
actress
Gehna
Vashishth,
director
Tanveer
Hashmi
and
Umesh
Kamath
(who
used
to
look
after
India
operations
of
Kundra's
firm),
he
said.
In
all,
11
persons
have
been
arrested
so
far
in
the
case,
the
police
officer
said.
The
crime
branch
has
so
far
frozen
at
least
Rs
7.50
crore
in
various
accounts
of
apps
operators
as
a
crime
proceeds,
he
said,
adding
there
are
some
wanted
accused
too.
"After
the
investigation,
we
laid
our
hands
on
some
documentary
evidence,
some
electronic
evidence
and
some
other
evidence
that
came
to
us,"
the
officer
said.
Because
of
the
content,
the
app
at
the
centre
of
the
racket
was
taken
down
from
the
Apple
store
in
June
2020,
he
said.
"As
of
now
what
we
see
is
that
Kenrin
might
have
got
established
only
to
bypass
laws
because
in
India
it
was
not
allowed...but
all
the
content
creation,
operations
and
account
management
were
done
in
Mumbai,"
he
said.