On Monday, the British Asian businessman, Raj Kundra was arrested because he was found guilty of establishing a porn app by the property cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch. He made this app just a year and a half ago and the earnings from the business were in crores in a short period of time. In consideration of the immoral demand of the porn viewers, he planned to open a porn hub, with the help of a London-based company named Kenrin Limited, which was owned by his brother-in-law.
The Mumbai Crime Branch reported that the business was more in demand during the COVID-19 lockdown period and the rich businessman had a Plan B, which was Bollyfame, which was to be executed when Raj Kundra’s business would come under the limelight.
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The joint commissioner of crime, Milind Bharambe told that, he wasn’t able to upload the porn content on the application called ‘Hotshot’, he used to send the videos to a foreign platform via ‘WeTransfer’, all the content was made in his own office and then sent to the London-based company, which was owned by his brother-in-law, ‘Pradeep Bakshi’.
The role of WhatsApp chats in the case:
He already knew that he was violating Indian law. For the app, Hotshot, the application was already taken down from the Google Play Store, last year in November and in June 2020, from Apple; this step was taken because the content which was being uploaded on the application was against the law.
In another chat, Bakshi had shared a PDF that stated Hotshot had been suspended from Play Store, to which Kundra said, “Its ok, Plan B started max in 2-3 weeks new application will be live on iOS and Android it’s a blessing”
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In a chat of a WhatsApp group, a digital marketing professional who is known as Rob told Kundra to deactivate the bold films and appeal on the android app downloading station. The police informed that Kundra wanted to shop shooting movies and instead go for live streaming of models and actors.
It is also predicted by the crime branch that it was Kundra who opened the London based company and later gave it to Bakshi, It is also reviled in the chats that Kundra was operating activities on HS and Kenrin, on which the content was being uploaded through WhatsApp groups, whose admin was Kundra himself. In December 2019, Kundra had sold the app to Kenrin for $25,000.
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Kundra’s earnings:
According to the sources, it is stated that it is believed that he earned Rs 2-3 lakh per day in the beginning and later on he made Rs 6-8 lakh daily. Bharambe said, “Documents of financial transactions run into thousands. We are analyzing the details to get exact earnings. The same will be treated as proceeds of crime. So far, we have frozen Rs 7.5 crore in many accounts.”
The guilty were arrested under the section 67A and the IT Act by the Senior Advocate Abad Ponda. The implications deal with sexually explicit, “Only the content ‘act of coitus’ intercourse can be considered porn, rest all is just vulgar but not porn.”
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In February, the case was thrown into scan when a raid was conducted in a Madh island bungalow and in all 5 people was arrested because of making sexual videos by luring aspiring actors in the title of OTT based movies. The victims were asked to sign a blank paper which was then converted into an agreement which stated that a person agreed to perform intimate, bold, erotic scenes which consisted of lip lock, smooch, topless/nude content for RS 10,000 to Rs 20,000.
Later on, actor Gehna Vasisth was arrested as she used to hire people and shoot their videos which were handed over to Kamat. After which, Kamat was arrested and which lead the Crime Branch to know about the lead role of Kundra in the porn racket.