Raj Kundra’s porn business flourished during lockdown: Mumbai Crime Branch

The Property Cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch which arrested businessman Raj Kundra on Monday has found that he established a porn business just a yearandahalf ago and earned crores in a very short time Considering the demand for the content he had planned to make a porn hub with the help of his brotherinlawrsquos Londonbased company Kenrin Limited He also had a Plan B Bollyfame in case the porn business came on the policersquos radarAccording to the Mumbai Crime Branch Kundrarsquos porn business flourished during the lockdown ldquoAs he cannot upload these videos from India on an app called Hotshot he provided the content to a foreign platform by sending videos via WeTransfer All content was created in his office and sent to a Londonbased company called Kenrin Limited owned by his brotherinlaw Pradeep Bakshirdquo said Milind Bharambe joint commissioner of police crimeAlso read Raj Kundra UKbased kin masterminded global porn racket PoliceKey WhatsApp chatsWhatsApp chats between Kundra and Bakshi mentioned in the first charge sheet filed in April indicate that he was aware that he was violating the law as the app Hotshot was taken down by Google Play Store in November 2020 and by Apple in June 2020 as the content went against their policies In a WhatsApp chat with another arrested accused and his former personal assistant Umesh Kamat Kundra shared the link of a news article that said cyber police are likely to summon heads of OTT platforms over the airing of porn content After sharing the link Kamat told Kundra lsquoThank god you planned BF Bollyfamersquo and Kundra responded saying lsquoTill BF is up letrsquos find out a way to sustain HS HOTSHOT Lets remove extreme bold for the time beingrsquo Kamat responded lsquoI doubt they can take down Alt Balajirsquo and then Kundra responded saying lsquothis isnrsquot that serious the OTT heads will be asked to take down the objectionable content our lives doing wellrsquoRaj Kundra and Ryan Thorpe right were brought to the Property Cellrsquos Byculla office on Tuesday after their custody hearing PicsBipin KokateIn another chat Bakshi shared a PDF that said that Hotshot had been suspended from Play Store Responding to it Kundra said lsquoThatrsquos fine plan B started max in 23 weeks new app will be live on iOS and Android itrsquos a blessingrsquo In another WhatsApp group a digital marketting professional identified as Rob told Kundra lsquoUntil then we can deactivate all the bold films and appeal again on the play storersquoThe Crime Branch also believes that Kundra wanted to stop shooting movies and stick to live streaming by models and actors on BFPolice also suspect that Kundra created Kenrin Limited and gave it to Bakshi This is also because of WhatsApp chats between Kundra and Bakshi retrieved from Kamatrsquos phone Kamat was arrested in February He has also worked with Kundrarsquos Viaan industries as a managing directorldquoThe chats also indicate that Kundra was monitoring the activities of Kenrin and Hotshot where the content was uploaded through WhatsApp groups which have him as the adminrdquo Kundrarsquos remand application read The application further said that the Hotshot app was developed by Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd under a build and transfer policy The app was owned by Kundra and he sold it to Kenrin in December 2019 for 25000Apart from Kundra his IT head Ryan Thorpe was also arrested on Monday after a few hours of questioning Both were produced before the Killa court and remanded to police custody till July 23What did Kundra earnMumbai Crime Branch believes that Kundra initially earned Rs 23 lakh per day and later made Rs 68 lakh daily ldquoDocuments of financial transactions run into thousands We are analysing the details to get exact earnings The same will be treated as proceeds of crime So far we have frozen Rs 75 crore in various accountsrdquo Bharambe saidMoney trailThe Crime Branch claimed in court that they have found transactions worth crores between Viaan Industries and Kenrin The transactions will be analysed the Crime Branch saidIt also alleged that Kundra is a key conspirator and people associated with him lured many aspiring girls into pornography on the pretext of giving them roles on OTT platforms ldquoThere are many victims who have approached us and the case has been registered based on their complaints We request other victims to come forward if they were lured into pornography by the accusedrdquo Bharambe addedSenior Advocate Abad Ponda who appeared for Kundra and Thorpe argued against Section 67A of the IT Act being applied in the case The section deals with sexually explicit acts ldquoOnly the actual lsquoact of coitusrsquo intercourse can be considered porn rest all is just vulgar content the same content is also shown on web series which are vulgar but not pornrdquoThe Crime Branch said that it has followed all legal procedures and recovered sexually explicit videos as described in the law ldquoDuring searches in Kundrarsquos office on Monday we recovered some more videos agreements and details of financial transactions indicating that he was running the Hotshot app and providing all the contentrdquo Bharambe addedThe caseThe case came to light after the Property Cell conducted raids in a Madh island bungalow in February and arrested five people making sexually explicit videos by luring aspiring actors in the name of making OTTbased filmsThe victims were forced to sign on a blank paper which later added details about agreeing to perform intimate erotic bold scenes including lip lock smooch toplessnude scenes for Rs 10000 to Rs 20000 The Crime Branch later arrested actor Gehna Vasisth who used to contact aspirants shoot videos and give them to Kamat the managing director of Viaan Industries Kundra is the chairman and nonexecutive director of the company After Gehnarsquos revelations Kamat was arrested and Crime Branch got to know of Kundrarsquos direct involvement in the porn racket So far 11 people have been arrested including Kundra and Thorpe The other nine accused are on bail and a charge sheet was filed in April