Pornography case: Now, ED books Raj Kundra for money laundering
The ongoing case against Raj Kundra has gotten entangled further. The businessman, along with 11 other people, was arrested in July last year for his alleged involvement in creating and distributing pornographic films. While he was granted bail in September, Kundra is again staring at difficulties now. He has been booked by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged money laundering in the case.
- Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra's husband, Kundra, has been in and out of trouble due to the alleged pornography racket.
- Apparently, he developed a paid app called HotShots to circulate pornographic films. He later sold it to his brother-in-law's company, Kenrin Private Limited.
- The Mumbai Police's Crime Branch named Kundra and Ryan Thorpe, IT head of Kundra's Viaan Enterprises, as the two main accused.
As per an ANI report, the new case came after the police's investigation found that Kundra set up Armsprime Media Private Limited, which developed the HotShots app. Now, Kundra is expected to be summoned by the ED sometime next week for further probe. The agency will also dig deeper to look into the transactions that were made by others related to the case.
Kundra's lawyer, advocate Prashant Patil, responded to the new case by saying that as per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, there were no "proceeds of crime." "We don't know what money laundering aspect ED wishes to investigate in the case. We haven't received any official communication from ED regarding registration of any ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) yet," he told a publication.
The pornography case surfaced when the crime branch's property cell raided a bungalow in Malwani in February 2021. Two women were reportedly shooting a pornographic clip when the raid took place. The police rescued a young woman who was apparently lured into acting and was later forced to perform sexual acts on camera. People involved in shooting and uploading the films were arrested, too.
Some actors who were falsely lured into Kundra's scheme also voiced their stories last year. They claimed that they were forced to take up the films and Kundra even threatened them if they refused. Actor Sherlyn Chopra spoke against Kundra and even gave a statement to the police. Irrespective of all the accusations, Kundra maintains that he has been falsely accused in the case.
Kundra was granted bail on September 20 by a metropolitan magistrate court. Following the events, HotShots, the application in question, was taken down from Google PlayStore. As per previous reports, the police have claimed that there might be a possibility that Kundra was the one who operated the application daily and also uploaded the pornographic content. Stay tuned for the updates.
