Mumbai: The city crime branch on Monday arrested celebrity businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, in an alleged pornography case unearthed early this year, in which nine persons, including model and actor Gehana Vasisth, were arrested.

Kundra’s name surfaced after the property cell probing the case stumbled upon the involvement of a UK production company, Kenrin, and police arrested its executive, Umesh Kamat. The former employee of Kundra was accused of uploading at least eight “pornographic and obscene” videos shot by Vasisth on a social media app for monetary consideration. Police showed Pradeep Bakshi, the proprietor of Kenrin, and Yash Thakur as absconding accused. Police suspect Kundra has a stake in Kenrin.

In February, the property cell led by inspector Kedar Pawar and assistant inspector Laxmikant Salunkhe raided a bungalow at Madh Island in Malad and busted a live porn video film-making racket, and rescued a woman. Police arrested Yasmin Rowa Khan, Pratibha Nalawade, Monu Gopaldas Joshi, Bhanusuryam Thakur and Mohammed Asif alias Saify under IPC sections for cheating, indulging in obscene acts in public places and publicly exhibiting or circulating obscene books or literature, and under the Information Technology Act.

This is the second time police questioned Kundra. Sources said on Monday crime branch picked up Kundra and detained him at the property cell’s office at Byculla. He will be produced before the 37th Esplanade metropolitan magistrate’s court on Tuesday.

“Kundra appears to be the key conspirator. We have sufficient evidence,” Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale said in a text message.

Sources said there was a delay in investigations as officers were transferred following Wazegate. The new officers hurriedly in May submitted a 500-page chargesheet in court against the nine, stating that they had frozen a bank account of Yasmin Rowa, which had a balance of Rs 36.5 lakh, generated from subscriptions of porn apps. Police had seized a high-definition DVR video camera, six mobile phones, a laptop, spotlight, camera stand, memory card containing video clips and dialogue/ script. Police had also arrested Vasisth, who would upload the videos on apps, including one based in the UK.

The victim rescued by police said under the pretext of giving a break in movies the accused would lure candidates, sign an agreement and force them to act in porn movies. During investigations it transpired that they would upload the video clips on their apps and other social media and would generate huge amounts.

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The Property Cell of Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday arrested businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, in connection with the pornography racket busted in February this year. The Mumbai police commissioner said Kundra is the key conspirator in the case and there is enough evidence against him.

“There was a case registered with the Crime Branch in February about the creation and publishing of pornographic films through apps. We have arrested Raj Kundra in this case as he appears to be the key conspirator. Further investigation is in progress,” said Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale.

The Property Cell of the Mumbai police recently busted a gang involved in making of porn films under the guise of short films for OTT platforms. They had arrested actor Gehana Vasisth along with eight others in the case. According to crime branch, after shooting the porn films, the accused used to send them to a foreign-based company through a popular file sharing service and the same was uploaded on various apps to evade the Indian law enforcing agencies.

 

During the probe, the crime also arrested Umesh Kamat, who they said used to work with Kundra. After his arrest, Kundra’s role surfaced but the crime branch had no evidence against him at the time. “Our team worked on it closely after filing the first charge sheet in the case. During the probe, we found that the accused had, in fact, sent WeTransfer files abroad while sitting in Kundra’s office,” said a crime branch officer.

Initially, the crime branch had said that the gang used to lure aspirants claiming to give them good roles in OTT films and later ended up forcing them into pornography. The accused used to earned Rs 2-Rs 3 lakh a video and the victims were paid Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.