Mumbai: Going by the statements of witnesses, the element of inducement, which is a prime ingredient of cheating, appears to be missing from the prosecution’s case, a magistrate’s court said while granting bail to businessman Raj Kundra on Monday in the pornography case.

Kundra and Ryan Thorpe, the IT head of his company, who were both arrested on July 19, walked out of Arthur Road jail on Tuesday afternoon after the formalities. The detailed four-page order was made available on Tuesday. Additional chief metropolitan magistrate S B Bhajipale noted that all servers, laptops and mobile phones of the accused were in custody of the police and, hence, there was no possibility of tampering with evidence. “At present, all the accused are released on bail. In such circumstances, only on the grounds that further investigation is going on, the accused cannot be kept behind bars till conclusion of trial,” he added. The prosecution had opposed the bail pleas of Kundra and Thorpe.

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Mumbai: Granting bail to businessman Raj Kundra, a magistrate’s court said the trial is likely to take its own time. “In such circumstances, it will not be proper to keep the accused in custody when they are ready to furnish surety for their appearance and to abide by conditions set by the court,” it added.

The court said 64 witnesses have been cited by the prosecution and the chargesheet runs into 4,000-plus pages. Moreover, none of the offences attract a sentence of more than seven years’ imprisonment. “The report of the cyber expert is still awaited. At present, investigation is completed as the chargesheet was filed on September 15,” said the court, pointing out the SC has held that the accused cannot be kept behind bars even for an inconsiderable period when investigations are completed.

Advocates Swapnil Ambure and Prashant Patil had argued that Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe were not related to uploading of the allegedly questionable content. “There is not a single allegation in the supplementary chargesheet against the applicant (Kundra) that he was actively involved in any video shooting. In fact, it is the sole discretion of the individual artistes to upload content on the app,” the bail plea said.

The defence said the case of the prosecution is not that there are victims who were coerced or threatened by Kundra. “None of the artistes ever raised any grievance or any alarm with regards to the so-called alleged filming and broadcasting of erotic content. By their own admission, their dispute is in respect of sharing of financial gains and consequential contractual obligation,” the bail plea had said.

The court noted there is a statement in the chargesheet about transactions. “However, from the statement, it can only be gathered that transactions took place between Kenrin and Hotshots and out of said transactions, there was an exchange of amounts. However, exchange of amounts is not an offence levelled against the accused in the chargesheet,” said the court.

The chargesheet said Kundra had set up Hotshots, an online platform, with the intention of distributing pornographic material. Victims were cheated by being told that they were going to be given roles in web series, short films and television serials. A forensic audit also revealed money laundering of the Hotspots revenues. The funds were diverted using Google and Apple apps to UK company Kenrin’s account in Lloyds Bank even before the app’s sale by Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd. Police suspect Kundra has a stake in the production company Kenrin and was involved in production and distribution of pornography material.

Kundra and Thorpe have been told not to leave the country.

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Mumbai: Businessman Raj Kundra had 119 adult/porn videos which he wanted to sell to UK-based JL Stream, said the police.

The claim is part of Mumbai police’s supplementary chargesheet, naming him as a key accused in an alleged pornography racket.

The police said they couldn’t find any video contents from Kundra’s mobile phone but the forensic cyber expert’s report says there are digital footprints of video clips. Annexed to the chargesheet are emails and WhatsApp chat between Kundra, his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi and one Monika from JL Stream discussing the sale of the porn clips. The police retrieved the chat from Kundra’s phone, in which there is a screenshot sent to him by Bakshi discussing the sale.

“Dear Monika, sharing the 119 movie list, this has cost me over $1.2 million to produce, giving them all to JL Stream in perpetual ownership. I would need part cash and part equity as discussed. The $75million valuation does not work for me… I am willing to agree on 2% in shares of JL Stream Singapore pvt ltd and $100k in transfer,” says Bakshi’s mail. Monika replies: “I have spoken to the board and the interest is there… to acquire your content bank in exchange for part cash part equity in JL Stream.”

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Raj Kundra, who was granted bail on Monday in a case related to creating and streaming pornographic content, was seen leaving the Arthur Road jail around 11.30 am yesterday. He was later seen arriving at his Juhu home. A magistrate court in Mumbai granted bail to the businessman, a key accused in the case, for which he was arrested in July. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SB Bhajipale allowed Kundra’s bail application on furnishing a bond of Rs. 50,000. His associate and co-accused Ryan Thorpe, who was arrested along with him on July 19, was also granted bail by the court in the case pertaining to the alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. The 46-year-old businessman and husband of actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra, was lodged in Arthur Road Jail in central Mumbai under judicial custody.

Raj Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch after being booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. He moved a bail plea before the metropolitan magistrate court after the police filed a supplementary charge sheet in the case.

In the plea, filed through advocate Prashant Patil, Kundra claimed there was no evidence with the prosecution that would connect the app Hotshots, used in the alleged porn films racket, with an offence under the law. As per the probe agency, the app was used by accused persons to upload and stream obscene content. The businessman claimed there was no evidence of him being “actively” involved in the creation of alleged questionable porn content. Kundra alleged he has been falsely implicated, was not even named in the FIR and has been dragged by the respondent (police) in the case. The businessman claimed in the plea that he is being made a “scapegoat”.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Bhajipale, after hearing both sides, allowed Kundra’s application on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 50,000. In their supplementary charge sheet, the police had claimed Kundra was the “main facilitator” in the case, and he, along with other accused, exploited young women struggling in the movie industry by filming them in obscene ways. The Crime Branch filed the nearly 1,500-page charge sheet against Kundra and Thorpe in the court on September 15. Besides Kundra and Thorpe, Yash Thakur, a resident of Singapore, and London-based Pardeep Bakshi have been shown as wanted accused in the charge sheet.

— Agencies

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A few hours after Raj was granted bail, Shilpa shared a quote by Chinese-American modernist architect Roger Lee. “Rainbows exist to prove that beautiful things can happen after a bad storm,” she wrote.

Earlier, in her statement to the police, Shilpa had claimed she was not aware of her husband Raj Kundra’s activities as she was busy with her work.