By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: The recent arrest and remanding of Raj Kundra to police custody till July 27, 2021 has drawn a host of reactions defending his innocence from firstly his wife actress Shilpa Shetty and subsequently by actress Gehana Vasishth who is currently out on bail in connection with police investigation launched into the matter, early February 2021. The controversy is surrounding Kundra’s alleged streaming of pornographic content through the mobile app Hotshots. Shilpa was reported to have denied Kundra’s involvement in producing pornographic content, seeking to make a distinction between ‘erotica’ and ‘pornography’.
Shetty in her statement to the police had named London-based Pradeep Bakshi who happened to be Kundra’s brother-in-law, as the person alleged to be directly involved with the app. The sleuths claimed to have seized 48 TeraBytes worth of images and videos in connection with porn-related content. The police are currently investigating the money trail that extends from Kundra’s account into an overseas destination, reportedly United Bank of Africa. The accused Kundra too in his statement denied his involvement in any wrongdoing, naming Pradeep Bakshi as the key person involved.
Also read: Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra in police custody in pornographic content case
The police team that cracked down on Kundra has cited the discovery of a WhatsApp group set up by the NRI that dealt with production, distribution and sale of content developed for the app Hotspots. Kundra has sought to challenge his arrest in the Bombay High Court asking for the lower court’s remand order to be quashed. The original complaint in this connection was on February 4,2021, when a woman alleged being forced to act in porn films on pretext of landing her an acting job. The raids conducted by the police have so far yielded INR 7.5 crores in cash.
Meanwhile, actress Gehana Vasishth who was recently out on bail after five months of incarceration related to the porn content, came out strongly in favour of Kundra and also emphasized that the police were trying to repeatedly coerce her into making allegations against Kundra.
Raj Kundra is a British Indian businessman. In 2004, he was ranked as the 198th richest British Asian by Success. His father, Bal Krishan Kundra was a middle-class businessman and his mother Usha Rani Kundra was a shop assistant when he was a child.
