Mumbai Crime Branch could summon Shilpa Shetty: Sources

Actress Shilpa Shetty

Mumbai Crime Branch is likely to summon actress Shilpa Shetty in connection with the pornography production racket in which her husband Raj Kundra has been arrested.

Sources said police have already started summoning the directors and other office bearers of Viaan Industries. Crime Branch suspects Shetty held a key post in the company but exited in 2020.

A senior officer in the Crime Branch confirmed to mid-day that various key players of the company from IT and finance departments have already been summoned and their statements are being recorded.

"Shilpa Shetty held a key post in the company, and as per our investigation, she left that post in 2020 after the Maharashtra cyber cell registered an FIR [in a separate case linked to vulgar contents on OTT platforms]. We are inquiring who all left the company recently. If required, they (including Shetty) will be called to get certain clarifications in the matter," an officer privy to investigation said.

Apart from Viaan Industries, Shetty is also a brand ambassador of Kundra's JL stream app. "The role of JL Stream has also surfaced in our investigation and recently, we have carried out raids at the offices of both the companies. Several incriminating pieces of evidence have been recovered."

Kundra deleted 2TB data?

The Crime Branch, which on Wednesday night raided Kundra's offices in Andheri, have found that a lot of data was removed from the server since they filed an FIR in the case in February. "So far we have found that around 2TB data has been deleted from the Storage Area Network (SAN) by the IT department of Kundra's firms on his instructions," the officer said.

Ryan Thorpe, the IT head of the businessman's team who has also been arrested, revealed that the videos were sent from Kundra's offices to London-based company Kenrin, which uploaded the pornography videos on Hotshot app.

Sources in the Crime Branch said Kundra was not cooperating in the investigation and claimed that his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi, who owns the London firm, did everything. "He is denying all the allegations levelled by victims and even materials found on his WhatsApp chats, saying that he only spoke on WhatsApp as," the officer said.

The Crime Branch, which had initially found 70 videos uploaded on Hotshot, has told mid-day that now they have recovered over 100 videos that were shot in India and sent to London via WeTransfer. "We suspect that the number is even higher. We are sending the server to the FSL for the recovery of the deleted data."