Raj Kundra spent lakhs on advertising HotShots app: Mumbai Crime Branch

Raj Kundra (behind, in black) and Ryan Thorpe at Killa Court on Tuesday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

In a further development in the alleged pornography racket, the Mumbai Crime Branch has claimed that businessman Raj Kundra spent lakhs on advertising the HotShots app on leading porn websites. The details were revealed in emails extracted from Kundra's phone. Crime Branch sources said that this debunks Kundra's claim that the content was erotica and not pornography and that he did not have any knowledge about the app's working. During his remand hearing on Tuesday, Kundra was remanded in judicial custody.

Senior officers said that they have been able to extract a bunch of emails from Kundra's phone and found that he was running the app from India and sent emails to a company that helps give advertisements on leading porn websites. "With the help of cyber forensics, we have extracted emails from Kundra's mobile phone. They were sent to the advertising platform TrafficJunky from info@hotshotworld.com. Further analysis revealed invoices of Kenrin Limited, emails related to ad overview (Android) ad overview (iOS) and payment receipts," an officer said.

The crime branch also said that advertisments were published on leading porn websites including Red Tube Mobile, You Porn mobile and Phron. "It has been established in our investigation that he was making payments in lakhs to these leading porn websites to give advertisments for HotShots app," the officer added.

Also read: Mumbai: Forced and threatened, claim porn case victims

Invoices found

"We have found invoices of around Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh. The preliminary analysis suggests that he used to pay Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 lakh per porn website for HotShots's advertisement," the officer said. This was one of the grounds mentioned by the police to seek further seven days' custody.

"My client has spent more than 200 hours in police custody, which is enough and there's no sufficient grounds to seek further custody," Kundra's lawyer Abad Ponda told the Killa Court. The Crime Branch has also frozen some of his accounts as an accountant from his company, a witness in the case, said in her statement that HotShots's revenue came from Apple and Google. "During co-accused Ryan Thorpe's interrogation, we have come to know that around $158,057 (R1,17,64, 886) has been credited to the HotShots app from August to December 2020," the remand application read.

Remand rejected

The investigating officer (IO) further told the court that because more people use Android than Apple, the amount earned by HotShots on Google Playstore may be higher. "We have asked Google to provide HotShots's transaction details," the officer said.

Mobile phones and laptops seized from Kundra and Thorpe also had invoices related to HotShots and information related to movies, payments and meetings. "It is now established that HotShots was being run by Kundra from Mumbai and Pradeep Bakshi is just his dummy to evade law enforcing agencies."

The court refused to give further police remand and sent Kundra to judicial custody on Tuesday. The Crime Branch also told the court that after Kundra's arrest, a few more victims have recorded their statement about being lured into pornography by the same set of accused.

HC hears petition

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday Kundra's petition challenging the legality of the case. Responding to Kundra's lawyer's claim, the IO said that he was served notice under CrPC 41A (notice of appearance before investigating officer) by the police. The court has asked the prosecution to file a reply and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.

Material seized from Raj Kundra

>> One mobile phone, one laptop
>> Three Storage Area Network (SAN) total 48 TB72 hard disks
>> One server, eight hard disks
>> Two Apple devices with 256 GB capacity