Mumbai: Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, was arrested by the crime branch on Monday night in a case, which it said, related to alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. On Tuesday, he was produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till July 23.
Speaking about the delay in Kundra's arrest in the case in which a charge-sheet was filed in April, Mumbai's Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Milind Bharambe said there were many electronic evidence to be scanned to build a strong case. Transfer of money, real ownership of accounts, the content and publisher were to be verified before the police could take coercive action, he added.
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The police found transfer of money in various bank accounts, Bharambe said, adding victims of the porn films racket used to get only a few thousands rupees. During the investigation, it came to light that a company named Armsprime had prepared the app (Hotshots) for Kenrin and there were individual apps also, he said. Viaan Industries had an agreement with Kenrin about the responsibility of content creation and money for that used to be transferred to Kundra's firm by the UK-based entity, the police officer said.
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Subscription money (for using apps) used to come in the name of Kenrin though the management was from Mumbai, he said. Before the Mumbai crime branch took over the case, there was a complaint with Maharashtra Cyber about the racket, Bharambe said. The Malwani police had filed FIRs on the basis of complaints received from two women, while another woman had submitted a complaint at the Lonavla Police Station, around 120km from Mumbai, he said.
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The Mumbai crime branch had started investigation into the case after some victims approached the Malwani Police station in February 2021. Following the investigations by the Malvani Police and later by the Crime Branch-CID and Property Cell, at least 12 arrests have been made so far, including Kundra, his techie associate Ryan J. Tharpe, who were remanded to police custody till July 23 by a Mumbai Magistrate Court.
