From Shilpa Shetty’s appeal to Raj Kundra’s case: 6 developments in the pornography racket

1. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra finally broke her silence following the arrest of her husband Raj Kundra in a pornography racket that shaken up the entertainment industry. Issuing a statement through Instagram, the actress appealed to everyone to stop this trial by media. “Yes! The past few days have been challenging, on every front. There have been a lot of rumours and accusations. A lot of unwarranted aspersions on me cast by the media and (not so) well wishers as well. A lot of trolling/questions posed… not only to me but also to my family,” she wrote in her post. “As a family, we are taking recourse to all our available legal remedies. But, till then I humbly request you - especially as a MOTHER — to respect our privacy for my children’s sake and request you to refrain from commenting on half-baked information without verifying the veracity of the same.” She ended her statement by saying: “We don’t deserve a media trial. Please let the law take its course.”

2. The Bombay High Court on Monday reserved its order on petitions filed by Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe challenging their arrest in a case related to alleged creation and streaming of pornographic content through apps, as updated by news agency ANI.

3. In today’s court hearing, Mumbai Police told the court that the businessman and his associate were not cooperating with the probe and had destroyed evidence by deleting WhatsApp messages. Kundra’s lawyer refuted this claim while calling the arrest illegal. Last week, four of Kundra’s employees also told the police they were instructed to delete the alleged porn clips.

4. “If they (the accused) are trying to destroy evidence, is the investigating agency supposed to be a mere spectator? If the accused are not co-operating and are destroying evidence, the investigating agency won’t be a mute spectator,” Mumbai Police said today in court, according to NDTV. The cops further stated that Kundra had deleted his iCloud account, but they found 61 porn videos and a script with adult content on his laptop, as well as 51 more in digital storage.

5. Kundra, who stands accused of filming and distributing pornographic films through mobile apps has had his anticipatory bail adjourned until August 7.

6. Actor Gehana Vasisth alias Vandana Tiwari, who is facing three FIRs in the porn films racket case, spoke to India Today TV claiming that the Mumbai Police had demanded Rs150,000 from her in exchange for not arresting her. “The cops said they wouldn’t arrest me if I paid them the money,” she said. In the interview, Vasisth also accepted she acted in some bold videos shot for Kundra’s mobile app HotShots but asserted that it wasn’t porn.