Pornography case: Raj Kundra sent to judicial custody; Mumbai police say app got Rs 1.1 crore in a year

MUMBAI: The city crime branch probing the pornography case involving businessman Raj Kundra said the controversial app Hotshot has generated Rs 1.17 crore from Apple for downloads of the alleged pornographic contents from August 2019 to July 2020. Kundra was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody.
The crime branch had earlier said that after the Hotshot app was removed by YouTube, Google Play and Apple, Kundra created another app called Bollyfame. It said that accounts containing cash to the tune of Rs 1.13 crore had been frozen.
Police in the remand plea said since Google has more users, they are expecting more revenue to have been generated from there. A request has been sent to Google for the information via email, the plea said.
Police believe Kundra’s brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi is just a frontman for Kundra’s shell company. Hotshot is owned by Bakshi’s company Kenrin, registered in UK. Police believe Kundra has been involved in production and dIstribution of pornographic videos. Through his tech firm named Arms Prime, he had developed several apps, including Hotshot which was later sold to Bakshi, it is alleged. Even though Kundra sold the app and resigned from Arms Prime, he continued to be involved in day-to-day activities of the app and it was handled by his former PA Umesh Kamat, who was arrested in the case in February.
During the course of investigations after the arrests of Gehana Vasisth, Rowa Khan and Tanveer Hashmi, it was revealed that all these accused used to make porn films for one Yash Thakur alias Arvind Srivastav, who used to run a similar application named Flizmovies.
The investigation revealed Thakur had registered the app in the name of wife of an intelligence officer on the pretext of hosting award-winning short films. But police have not found any links between Kundra and Thakur. In 2019, Thakur contacted the officer and started the app. Meanwhile, the officer found transactions of Rs 1.4 crore in his wife’s account, which was handled by Thakur. When the officer checked the app, he was shocked to find pornographic content, and he backed off. Only then did Thakur allegedly start a new app named Nueflicks which he registered in the US. Police said they have issued a red corner notice against Thakur. Police said a new victim has come forward and has recorded her statement.
Kundra’s lawyers Abad Ponda and Subhash Jadhav submitted his bail plea. It will come up for hearing on Wednesday. The plea said the chargesheet was already filed in the case and as such, no case was made out against Kundra. It further said there was no evidence to show Kundra was involved and his name had not even featured in the initial probe.
The remand plea said Kundra had not co-operated with investigations as he had refused to sign a notice issued to him. It said his wife, film actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s statement was recorded and a search of their residence was conducted.