Supplementary charge sheet filed against Kundra, associate

Raj Kundra. File pic

The property cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday filed a 1,500 pages supplementary charge sheet against Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty's husband, Raj Kundra and his IT head Ryan Thorpe, in connection with the pornography racket busted in February this year.

The first charge sheet was filed in the month of April this year against 11 accused including actress Gehna Vasisth. According to the Crime Branch, the supplementary charge sheet was filed against Kundra and Thorpe on Wednesday before the Killa court. Both have been charged under various sections of IPC, sections of the Information Technology Act and Indecent Representation of Women (prohibition) Act 1986. Kundra's brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi and one Yash Thakur have been shown as absconding accused in the charge sheet. The UK-based Kenrin Limited was run by Bakshi.

"The supplementary charge sheet has been submitted and the court has taken cognisance of the same. We have incriminating evidence against all the accused," said Prakash Jadhav, DCP Crime Branch, Mumbai.

"The supplementary charge sheet contains incriminating material against the accused, which includes details of emails, WhatsApp chats between Kundra and other accused and details of 24 hard disks containing pornographic content seized from Kundra's office in Andheri," the Crime Branch said. The charge sheet also has details of the bank accounts of Kundra's company and of the Hotshots app which was removed by Google and Apple after it was found sharing pornographic videos.

Also Read: Porn films case: Bombay HC rejects actor Gehana Vasisth's pre-arrest bail plea

The supplementary charge sheet has statements of 43 witnesses including Shilpa Shetty and five statements recorded under 164 CrPC (recording of confessions and statement). The charge sheet was filed by investigating officer Kiran Bidve attached to property cell. The Mumbai Crime Branch, in the charge sheet has said, that Kundra is the master mind behind the pornography racket and he was running it from his VIAAN industries office located in Andheri.

According to the charge sheet, Shetty in her statement, has said that in 2015 Kundra formed VIAAN industries in which she has 24.50 percent stake and in July 2020 she resigned from the company due to personal reasons. She also said that she has no idea about Hotshots and Bollyfame as she was busy with her work and had no idea of what her husband was doing.

Kundra has been claiming that he has nothing to do with the Hotshots app. However, officials from the Crime Branch have found his WhatsApps chats with a person called Sam Ahmed. "I have partnered with a UK firm called Kenrin that has an amazing OTT app that Arms Prime has produced, but this company bought it out totally. So it is doing very well and we should do something together," Kundra said in the chat with Sam. As per the charge sheet, Kundra, was one of the directors of Arms Prime and invested Rs 87 lakh in it. But he exited Arms Prime and took on the Hotshots app which was developed by Arms Prime. He gave the server of hotshots to Pradeep Bakshi. The pornographic videos were uploaded from London and some were uploaded from VIAAN industries office using this hotshots server, alleges the charge sheet.