The Raj Kundra case continues to get murkier by the day, with the public prosecutor at Saturday’s hearing informing the Bombay High Court that 51 obscene clips were seized from two apps by the Mumbai Crime Branch that are being linked the businessman and his associate Ryan Thorpe.
Public prosecutor Aruna Pai further stated that Kundra and Thorpe were arrested as they had “started deleting WhatsApp group and chats” and hence “destroying evidence” so the police had to arrest them. “When an accused starts destroying evidence the investigating authorities cannot be mute spectators, they have to prevent them. Therefore in order to prevent them, they were arrested,” Pai told the HC.
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At a hearing via video-conferencing, Pai further said the duo stands accused of “serious offences of porn streaming content” and that police “also seized material from phone and storage device”. She said there was an “email message from Kundra on his Hotshot app with Pardeep Bakshi, his brother-in-law, who owns a company in London,” according to The Hindu.
Details of the WhatsApp chats were divulged to ANI by Mumbai Police. “In the WhatsApp chats, we have found that Raj Kundra was talking about a deal about selling 121 videos for $1.2 million. This deal seems to be on the international level.”
The police also said they suspect the money earned from pornography was used in online betting. The hearing will continue on August 2.
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s husband stands accused of filming and distributing pornographic content through mobile apps like Hotshots. Kundra has filed a petition contending that the alleged content does not depict any explicit sexual acts or intercourse but show only material in the form of short films. He remains under judicial custody until August 10.
