Porn racket: Raj Kundra withdraws bail plea after being named in supplementary chargesheet

A day after the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police submitted a 1467-page supplementary charge sheet, Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty's husband and businessman Raj Kundra has withdrawn his bail application from the Mumbai Sessions court. In the supplementary charge sheet, the Crime Branch has named Raj Kundra, his companion Ryan Tharp among others, as part of the racket in which 'struggling actors were lured into getting semi-nude, nude pictures and videos shot' which were later uploaded on Apps like Hotshots. 

Raj Kundra and Ryan Tharp were arrested by the Mumbai crime branch on July 19 and are currently in jail under judicial custody. Their bail pleas were pending before a Mumbai sessions court, however, the businessman has now withdrawn his application after recent developments. 

Supplementary charge sheet in Raj Kundra Porn Racket Case

Republic TV has accessed the details of the Mumbai Police crime branch's supplementary charge sheet in the Raj Kundra porn racket case. As per the charge sheet, Kundra used to operate the Hotshots app from his own office, Viaan Industries Pvt Limited in Andheri. 

In the charge sheet filed, the Police have contended, "The accused taking advantage of the financial problems of the struggling actors of the industry, lured them into semi-nude as well as nude shootings for the porn videos. The porn videos were then uploaded on various websites as well as mobile applications." The police further added, "From this, the accused earned money." 

Apart from Kundra and Tharp, Raj Kundra's brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi and Arvind Kumar Srivastava alias Yash Thakur are accused in the case. Sufficient evidence has been gathered against these two persons, so they could also be arrested if the police trace them.

The statements of 47 witnesses have been recorded, which includes Raj Kundra's wife, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Her statement had been recorded as a witness. 

Shilpa was a 24.50% shareholder in Viaan Industries as a director when the company had been launched in 2015. She had, however, resigned from the post in 2020.  

In her statement, she stated that she did not have any knowledge about the app that Raj Kundra was running. She added that she was so busy with her work that she did not know what work Raj Kundra used to do.

A WhatsApp chat and email trail have also been mentioned in the charge sheet. Details of the conversation in two WhatsApp groups, where Raj Kundra was the admin, have surfaced. His conversations with Saurabh Kushwaha, the director of Armprime Media Private Limited, the company Kundra set up through he used to upload sexual content too have been exposed. 

(Image: ANI)