Businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, was arrested on Monday by the Mumbai police in a case related to the alleged creation of pornographic films and streaming them through a mobile app called “Hotshots”.
Raj Kundra and his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi are the alleged masterminds of the international porn films racket perpetrated through their content production companies based in India and the United Kingdom. The company was allegedly set up by Mr Kundra and his brother-in-law and registered in the UK so it could evade Indian stringent cyber-laws against publishing and transmitting “obscene material”.
The case was registered on February 4 after a woman approached the police and complained about being forced to do a porn. The porn films were allegedly shot in India, transferred using WeTransfer to the UK and released on paid mobile apps. The police said the films were shot in houses and hotels rented in Mumbai. Models were allegedly lured in with promises of film offers and then forced to shoot porn. When the women resisted, they were threatened.
After further probe the police sought the court’s permission to search Kundra’s office. Eventually, a police team raided his office on Monday and claimed to have found “incriminating evidence” based on which he was arrested late that night. The police also said that Kundra received massive sums of money and they seized foreign currencies and electronic devices.
The Police described Mr Kundra as the Key Conspirator in the case and said that they have sufficient evidence against him. They found proof of clips from Mr Kundra’s Office. His IT manager, Ryan Thorpe was arrested on Tuesday.
“Hotshots” has been removed from the mobile platforms and both Apple and Google have removed the App.
Raj Kundra father was a middle-class businessman and his mother a shop assistant. In 2004, Raj Kundra was ranked as the 198th richest British Asian by Success.
It is a known factor that bribery and corruption stems from prominent people, be it politicians, celebrities, or wealthy people in the private sector, who uses their money and power to commit heinous crimes and they have been getting away with it for decades.