Pornography case: Raj Kundra sent to police custody till July 27
Mumbai/IBNS: Actor Shilpa Shetty's husband and businessman Raj Kundra, arrested in connection with a case of pornographic content shown through an app, has been sent to police custody till July 27, said media reports.
He was arrested along with his aide Ryan Thorpe. Police told the court that they have seized a huge cache of pornographic images and videos- around 48 TB, according to an NDTV report.
Police recovered 51 clips from the laptop seized, the report said, adding that 31 of them were those streamed on Hotshots app.
Police are investigating if the clips were uploaded on the internet, it said.
The investigators told the court that some data were deleted from other computers a day after Mr Kundra was arrested, and it would take one more day to recover those.
They said Kundra was working on a "Plan B" after Apple and Google app stores disabled "Hotshots" from their platforms for streaming pornographic content.
Kundra was working on another network "Bolifem" to have it listed on Google and Apple app stores to stream the illicit content through the new app.
Further, police have found transactions between a Yes Bank account in Raj Kundra's name to one in the United Bank of Africa. They suspect that the money from the sale of pornographic content was used for online betting and so far Rs 7.5 crore has been seized, the NDTV report said.
Kundra's lawyer Abad Ponda argued that the content seized can come under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code that pertains to "lascivious" material, he said, adding "no further custody is needed", said the report.
He contended Kundra cannot be charged under Section 67 of the IT Act - for which bail is not allowed, as similar content is available on OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Kundra was arrested on Monday after Umesh Kamat, his former assistant, named him. Thorpe was arrested the next day. Till now 11 people have been arrested so far.
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