A Mumbai court on Tuesday (July 27) sent Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe to judicial custody for 14 days in the pornography racket case. The Bombay High Court was hearing Kundra’s plea challenging police custody and seeking bail in the porn films case. Kundra, 45, was arrested by the police on July 19 along with 11 other people on charges related to the alleged creation of pornographic films.
Zee News has learned that Raj Kundra's Citibank and Kotak Mahindra Bank accounts have been frozen. There is a deposit of Rs 1 crore 13 lakh in Kotak Mahindra Bank. The Crime Branch has appealed to all the victims related to the case to come forward. A victim appeared before the Crime Branch on July 26 and gave his statement.
Raj Kundra has also received Rs 1.64 crore from Apple Company. The payment information from Google is yet to come.
Crime Branch officials found files related to foreign transactions in Raj Kundra’s office during their raid on July 24. Chats related to Hotshots revenue and payments have been recovered from Raj Kundra's mobile and Ryan's laptop.
Meanwhile, Crime Branch has appointed a financial auditor to probe the money trail of Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty and their alleged involvement in the pornography racket case.
"In the investigation, the Crime Branch has found transactions worth crores were done from the joint account of Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra. The Crime Branch suspects that the earnings from 'Hotshots' and 'Bolly Fame' app used to come into this account," said the sources.
They added that police is also probing whether money earned from the apps was being invested in bitcoins.Earlier on Sunday, police had informed that four employees of Kundra have turned witnesses against him in the pornography racket case, increasing troubles for him.
Kundra has been named as the key conspirator by the Mumbai Police which has slapped charges against him under Sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), 292 and 293 (related to obscene and indecent advertisements and displays) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides relevant sections of the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
(With inputs from ANI)