MUMBAI: A court in Mumbai has sent actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman Raj Kundra along with his associate Ryan Thorpe to judicial custody for 14 days in the pornography racket case.
During the proceedings of the court, the investigating officer said the accused (Raj Kundra) was not cooperating and has not given proper answers to any question.
While updating the court about the investigation, the officer said they have recorded Shilpa Shetty’s statement and have also seized Kundra’s MacBook and phone.
“We have recovered WhatsApp chats regarding the revenue of Hotshot from Kundra’s MacBook and phone, and have also found traces of foreign transactions,” the officer added. Kundra’s Kotak Bank and Citi Bank accounts have been seized, and nine digital files with huge amounts of data have been recovered.
“We are analysing the data and a forensic audit is being conducted,” the investigating officer said. “Kundra and Ryan are not giving proper information about the whereabouts of Pradeep Bakshi and Arvind Shrivastava,” he further added.
It has been revealed that the accused received around Rs 1.64 crore payment from Apple, while the information regarding revenue generated from Google Play Store is awaited. Raj Kundra’s lawyer told the court that he has been interrogated for over 200 hours now, and that nothing was left to ask from him.
“He shouldn’t have been arrested in this case in the first place,” he said.
“He has cooperated fully and has been in custody for long now,” Kundra’s lawyer told media. Kundra has filed a bail plea at Bombay High Court, to which his lawyer said, “The court is expected to hear tomorrow, but we are not sure.”
The High Court hearing for violation of Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is today in the evening, he informed. Their police custody in the case was to end today. Kundra was arrested by the police on July 19 along with 11 other people on charges related to the alleged creation of pornographic films.
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. (ANI)
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