Celebrity businessmen Raj Kundra, allegedly the key conspirator in the pornography racket, destroyed his phone in March after the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested his close associate Umesh Kamat in the case.

The Crime Branch suspects that Kundra’s old phone had incriminating data and WhatsApp chats that could have been crucial in the ongoing investigation. It had informed the high court on Monday that Kundra had deleted his iCloud account.

Further investigation has revealed that he deleted his iCloud account with the help of his IT head Ryan Thorpe, and then destroyed his phone in March, said a senior officer.

“We have found several WhatsApp chats on Kamat’s mobile phone, and we were expecting to find more data on Kundra’s phone related to the pornography racket. He has been using the new iPhone since March,” the officer added.

The Crime Branch has sent all of Kundra’s gadgets to the Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratories (DFSL) to retrieve the data. The agency has recovered some emails with the help of forensic experts. “It is very difficult to recover data once the iCloud account has been deleted. But again, it depends on the user policy and only service providers can help the investigating agency, because they do have disaster backup even if the data is deleted by the user,” an expert from DFSL said.

He added, “Also, one has to check what options the user selected, while deleting the data, to recover it in future if required.”

Kundra, who was arrested last month, is currently in judicial custody and lodged at Arthur Road Jail. His first bail application was rejected by the magistrate court, following which he approached sessions court which will hear bail application today.