Mumbai: The city crime branch carried out a search of actor Shilpa Shetty’s house in Juhu in connection with the pornography case involving her husband Raj Kundra on Friday. Shetty was a director in Kundra’s Viaan Industries which is under the scanner. A police team recorded Shetty’s statement on when and why she resigned from the post.

Police may now probe Shetty’s bank accounts to check if proceeds from subscriptions to an app named Hotshots linked to Kundra’s firm and showing films with sexual content, landed in her accounts.

The crime branch has called for forensic auditing of Kundra’s accounts; they have found transfers into a Yes Bank account from Mercury International (dealing in online betting and casino gaming) from South Africa.

Police have also invoked IPC section 201 for destruction of evidence after a forensic examination of eight servers seized from Kundra’s companies JL Stream and Viaan Industries showed deletion of data Seeking extension of Kundra’s custody, police cited diversion of monies earned from the app as well as Kundra’s links to online betting. The remand plea said transactions showed he received huge tranches of dollars and pounds which needed probing.

Kundra, also known as Ripu Sudan Kundra (45), and his IT head Ryan Thorpe (43) were produced before a magistrate on Friday. They were arrested on Monday. The court has sent them to police custody till next Tuesday. The defence lawyer argued that, "Videos on which the crime branch case is based, do not fall under the pornographic content category. These videos and photos mentioned in the first chargesheet don't show 'actual act of coitus' or 'actual act of intercourse'."

Defence lawyer Adv Abad Ponda said, "OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon have similar content. Shows like Sex Life and Four More Shots Please have similar content. I don't understand why Mumbai Police is going after Kundra but not after Netflix and Amazon."

Hotshots earned 4,000-10,000 pounds monthly excluding expenses, police said. In the remand plea, police cited an alleged chat from Kundra's phone where he spoke of selling 119 adult films for $1.2 million.

The police alleged that after the Hotshots App was removed by YouTube, Google Play and Apple, Kundra created another app called Bollyfame. Police said they have examined 119 video clips from it and most are porn clips.

“Prima facie investigation has found that Raj Kundra founded Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd which through London-based Kenrin Pvt Ltd bought Hotshots app to upload objectionable videos on social media. Kundra's company Viaan Industries and its employees were involved in maintenance of the app,” the remand plea said.

In February, the crime branch raided a bungalow in Madh Island and allegedly busted a porn film-making racket. This was the case which eventually led to Kundra’s arrest.