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.

Mumbai: Businessman and actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra set up Hotshots, an online platform, with the intention of distributing pornographic material, his business partner has said in a confessional statement now part of the supplementary chargesheet submitted by the police.

The Hotshots app was set up by Armsprime Ltd, in which Kundra and Saurabh Kushwaha were directors. Kushwaha, who held 35% stake, said control of the app, including uploading videos was in the hands of Kundra.

Subsequently, Hotshots was sold to UK-based Kenrin Ltd with Kundra resigning from Armsprime’s directorship a day prior to the sale.

The chargesheet says a forensic audit also reveals money laundering of the revenues generated from Hotshots. The funds were diverted using Google and Apple apps to Kenrin’s account in Lloyds Bank in the UK even before the sale by Armsprime.

The revenues generated from the Hotshots app from August 2015 to December 2020 were transferred by Google and Apple Inc to the bank account of Kenrin maintained with Lloyds Bank in the UK instead of Armsprime Indian account. This indicated that the revenues that were earned and accrued on sale of the Hotshots app were diverted and laundered to Kenrin Ltd’s UK bank account during the directorship of Kundra in Armsprime Ltd,” the chargesheet says. Police have also attached the details of the revenues generated from the sale of subscriptions of Hotshots on Apple Inc and Google.

Kushwaha said he was in the dark about the operations as Kundra and the company's tech head, Ryan Thorpe, handled the show. One of the mails retrieved during the forensic auditing cites an email between Kundra and Kushwaha where the former mentions waiving off loans to Armsprime on the condition that ownership of the OTT platforms are transferred to his servers.

The scrutiny of the accounts and audited balance sheet of Armsprime reveals there are outstanding loans for an amount of Rs 17.92 lakh payable to Kundra as on March 31, 2019, said the chargesheet. This establishes Kundra is a director in Armsprime and also instrumental in deciding the sale consideration of the Hotshots app and its mode of payment.

Hotshots was sold to Kenrin in the UK on December 12, 2019. A day prior to the sale, Kundra resigned from the directorship of Armsprime. The chargesheet cites an email between Kundra and Kushwaha on January 6, 2020 which indicates purchase consideration and mode of payment were carried out with their mutual knowledge.

Meanwhile, Shilpa Shetty who is cited as witness no. 39 has stated that she was busy and never inquired with Kundra about his work. Kundra started Viaan Industries Ltd in 2015 which was into making animation, cartoons and apps, she said. Shilpa said that in February when the crime branch busted the pornography case and arrested Umesh Kamat, the PA of Kundra, she asked her husband about it. She said he told her that arrested model Gehana Vashist alias Vandana Tiwari and Kamath have independently shot and uploaded the porn movies.

In February, the property cell of the crime branch raided a bungalow in Madh Island in Malad and busted a porn video film-making racket and rescued a woman. This led to the arrest of Raj Kundra and others.

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Police have shown Raj Kundra’s brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi and Singapore-based Arvind Kumar alias Yash Thakur as absconding accused in the supplementary chargesheet. They issued lookout notices (LOC) against Bakshi, Thakur and Kundra. On why they have issued an LOC against Kundra when he is already in jail, police said that he was a UK national, and if released, he may fly to London and may not return to face trial.

Mumbai: The city crime branch on Wednesday filed a 1,500-page supplementary chargesheet in connection with a pornography case in which Raj Kundra, businessman and actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband, and his company’s IT head Ryan Thorpe were arrested in July.

Shetty has been shown as one of the 43 witnesses in the supplementary chargesheet. There are five star witnesses in the case who have deposed before a magistrate and given statements against the accused. Shetty, though, has not said anything against Kundra that could help the prosecution, said officials.

Officials said this supplementary chargesheet is against Kundra and Thorpe.

Kundra’s brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi and one Yash Thakur have been shown as absconding accused in the chargesheet.

Police said in the supplementary chargesheet they have attached details of email exchanges and WhatsApp chats between Kundra and the other accused, 24 hard disks containing pornographic material seized from Kundra’s office, Andheri bank details of Kundra’s firms and Hotshot app.

The crime branch press release stated Kundra and Thorpe in connivance with the other arrested accused took advantage of struggling aspiring models to indulge in obscene and pornographic acts.

Kundra’s name had surfaced in July after the crime branch’s property cell probing the case stumbled upon the involvement of UK-based production company Kenrin and arrested its executive Umesh Kamat in the case.

Kamat, a former employee of Kundra, is accused of uploading at least seven to eight “porn and obscene” videos allegedly shot by Gehana Vasisth on a social media app for monetary consideration. Police suspect Kundra has a stake in Kenrin and was involved in the production and distribution of pornography material.

In February, the property cell had raided a bungalow in Madh Island, Malad, and busted a porn video film-making racket and rescued a woman.

Mumbai: In a detailed order rejecting Raj Kundra’s bail plea in a pornography case, a magistrate court said the alleged offence is detrimental to the health of our society. It said under such circumstances, societal interest in the prosecution of a crime, which has a wider social dimension, cannot be overlooked.

Kundra and Ryan Thorpe, the IT head of his company, were arrested on July 19. While the bail pleas of the duo were rejected last week, the detailed order was made available on Monday. In their bail pleas, they had contended they were falsely implicated and had no active role in the alleged crime.

The court also rejected Kundra’s argument that his detention was not as per law.

One of the considerations for refusing or granting bail is the nature of offence and gravity of offence. The effect of alleged offence is having nexus with public at large. The alleged offence is also detrimental to the health of our society,” the court said.

The court said since there are allegations that Kundra in connivance with Thorpe deleted some incriminating data, there is every possibility the accused could tamper with the evidence if released on bail. The court also said, “The investigating officer has already mentioned the reasons for arrest of both the accused. In such circumstances, it cannot be said that the accused are entitled for bail on the ground that their arrest is illegal,” additional chief metropolitan magistrate S B Bhajipale said.

Kundra has moved a plea against the order before the sessions court.

The court also observed that it appeared that Pradeep Bakshi, an accused who is Kundra’s relative, was absconding. “No doubt both accused are in judicial custody. However, taking the accused in judicial custody by refusing police custody does not mean that the investigation is completed,” the court said. It also pointed out that investigators had gathered a lot of data and the process of analysis was on. “At this stage, release of the accused will hamper investigation. Considering the facts and circumstances, both the bail applications are rejected,” the court said.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday concluded hearing in Raj Kundra’s challenge to his arrest and remand in connection with a case of alleged “production and streaming of pornographic content” via apps, and reserved his plea for orders. His lawyer reiterated that the prosecution’s submission of the businessman deleting some chats on the day of the search to justify his arrest was an “afterthought.” Kundra was arrested on July 19 by Mumbai police and has been in magisterial custody in jail since July 27.

Senior counsel Abad Ponda, in his rebuttal before Justice Ajay Gadkari to public prosecutor Aruna Pai’s submissions, said the seizure panchanama after the search and remand plea did not show anything about deletion of chats which the state is stressing on now. “It does not change the position that there is no record of deletion (on July 19),” he said.

Pai added more videos were found by police on two apps which were “obscene and bold films.” She said police had served Kundra and his co-accused Ryan Thorpe the Section 41A notice under CrPC (a provision to seek appearance of suspect before police station for an explanation when intention is not to arrest immediately when offence attracts up to 7 years’ imprisonment). She said while Thorpe accepted the notice, Kundra had refused, and police arrested him for non-cooperation and for deleting data.

Ponda said police’s case is “falsified” as “apparently the mobile is taken charge of in the panchanama.” He said the seizure record will show his “mobile is in custody of the police.” He said from Kundra, two hard disks, one laptop and one mobile phone were taken charge of under the panchnama. “If this is so, then necessarily, the petitioner (Kundra) cannot delete data or WhatsApp groups or WhatsApp chats,” said Ponda, assisted by advocate Subhash Jadhav. The PP said deletion of chats was prior to serving of the notice.

Even Thorpe’s counsel Abhinav Chandrachud argued the second remand never mentioned any July 19 “deletion” but to a prior “February 2021” attempt. Thorpe also challenge his arrest and remand as illegal, and HC will now pronounce its order in both their petitions.

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Mumbai: A sessions court on Monday adjourned the hearing in the anticipatory bail plea moved by UK businessman Raj Kundra in an obscenity case being investigated by the cyber crime police. The court extended the interim relief from arrest till Saturday. In November 2020, cops had registered an FIR against 14 OTT platforms and web portals for obscene content based on a complaint by a retired customs official. Summons were sent to the heads of these platforms and portals, besides some actors in the videos. Kundra is currently in custody in a case being investigated by the crime branch. 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.

As investigations into the porn racket case against businessman and Shilpa Shetty’s husband, Raj Kundra, progress, the actress recorded her statement with the police at her residence in Juhu on Friday. According to sources, it was decided to record her statement after the police suspected that Shilpa may have known about Raj’s business related to the app, HotShots, where video content was uploaded.

The actress is believed to have told the police that the video content is erotica and not pornography. She also maintained that her husband has nothing to do with the entire business and she is not aware of the existence of pornographic videos claimed by Mumbai police.

While recording her statement, the Crime Branch asked Shilpa if she was aware of the alleged pornography racket run by her husband and Viaan Industries, a beneficiary. Shilpa served as a director of the company till 2020. An officer told mid-day, “She said that movies available on Hotshots are not pornography but erotica. She also said that nowadays, similar content is available on the various OTT platforms and in fact, some are more obscene than what is available on Hotshots.”

According to sources, like Raj, Shilpa too denied being involved in the production of the alleged pornographic videos. Raj has said that everything was handled by his brother-in-law, Pradeep Bakshi, from London, with whom he only spoke on WhatsApp. However, the Mumbai police is not relying on Raj’s statement. “We have enough evidence that he was dealing with everything, his brother-in-law was made owner of the London-based company just for namesake,” the officer said.

The Crime Branch has not found Shilpa to be directly linked with the coordination of people who shot the alleged pornographic videos by luring aspirants in the name of giving opportunities on leading OTT platforms. She was questioned for several hours about her exit from Viaan industries in 2020. The Crime Branch suspects she took this step fearing legal hurdles due to Viaan Industries’s connection with Kenrin Limited and Hotshot. Police have found evidence of financial transactions between Kenrin Limited and Viaan industries.

On Friday, Raj was also taken to his residence for a raid after his remand hearing. The Crime Branch conducted searches at the couple’s Juhu residence and seized electronic gadgets. They were also questioned together regarding WhatsApp chats. The officers left their residence late on Friday after six and a half hours.

Mumbai: To mislead investigating agencies, businessman Ripu Sudan Balkrishna Kundra alias Raj Kundra (45), arrested late Monday evening for production of pornographic films, sold his app ‘Hotshots’ to UK-based company Kenrin Pvt Ltd owned by his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi but controlled activities from Mumbai, police said on Tuesday.

Raj Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, and his IT head Ryan Thorpe, arrested by the crime branch, were produced before the 37th metropolitan magistrate on Tuesday and remanded in custody till July 23. Police had already arrested nine people earlier in the case.

Kundra was involved in the streaming of pornographic videos through the ‘Hotshots’ app, police said. ‘Hotshots’ has now been removed from mobile platforms, and both Apple and Google have removed it due to its pornographic content. Kundra supplied the content and controlled the UK company from his Viaan Industries office. Kundra’s IT head Ryan Thorpe used to look after the app’s functioning, including financial transactions, police said. Kundra said that in 2019, he sold ‘Hotshots’ for 25,000 US dollars and formed another company, Arms Prime Media.

Police said they found proof, including clips from Kundra’s office. His lawyers Abad Ponda and Subhash Jadhav alleged the arrests were illegal as police did not follow procedures under the Criminal Procedure Code.

Police claimed they arrested Kundra after they gathered sufficient digital and material evidence to show his and his company Viaan Industries’ role in streaming of pornographic clips on various apps. Police, who carried out a search of Kundra’s JLM Stream office at Veera Desai Road, Andheri, claimed to have found documents indicating his role.

“In the ongoing investigations, after taking the court’s permission, our teams carried out searches of his office and residence. We found agreements, emails, WhatsApp chats and pornographic material,” said Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (crime).

“Kundra had formed WhatsApp groups under the name ‘HS TAKE DOWN,’ ‘HS ACCOUNT’ and ‘HS OPERATION’ and he himself was the admin, where they discussed revenue generated on porn content. There are lots of transactions in various accounts in the name of Viaan Industries. We suspect Kundra’s company has received huge finances from foreign shores, which are proceeds of crime. Till now we have frozen several bank accounts of the accused in which we have found Rs 7.5 crore,” an officer said.

But Kamat told police Kenrin belongs to Pradeep Bakshi, Kundra’s brother-in-law. Police said though Bakshi’s company Kenrin owned the ‘Hotshots’ app, Kundra controlled it from his Viaan Industries office.

Investigating officer Kiran Biduo told court that Kundra’s involvement came to light after the arrest of Gahna Vashist, who named the businessman’s former personal assistant Umesh Kamat. Kamat revealed Kundra's involvement and said Kundra had appointed him as coordinator and used to look after the ‘Hotshots’ app.

In February, the property cell of the crime branch raided a bungalow in Madh Island and busted a porn film racket and rescued a woman. Police arrested five persons, namely Yasmin Rowa Khan, Pratibha Nalawade, Monu Gopaldas Joshi, Bhanusuryam Thakur and Mohammed Asif alias Saify under IPC sections of cheating, outraging modesty and indulging in obscene act in public places and under the IT Act for publicly exhibiting or circulating obscene books or literature. The gang’s modus operandi was to lure models promising them a break in web series and short films. They forced them to do “bold scenes” despite their objections, police said. Kundra’s name had also surfaced in investigations by state cyber police. In November last year, police had registered an FIR against 14 OTT platforms for showing pornographic content.