A day after arresting businessman Raj Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, the Mumbai Police on Tuesday arrested his aide Ryan Thorpe in a snowballing scandal involving the production and streaming of porn films. Both of them have been remanded in police custody till 23 July.
The police described Raj Kundra, 45, as a “key conspirator” in the case and said it had sufficient evidence against him. “There was a case registered with the Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. We’ve arrested Mr Raj Kundra in this case on 19/7/21 as he appears to be the key conspirator of this. We have sufficient evidence regarding this,” Mumbai police commissioner said in a statement on Monday evening. Meanwhile, joint police commissioner crime Milind Bharambe addressed a press conference and said: “We will check Shilpa Shetty’s role also in this matter. Till now Rs 7.5 crore has been seized from Raj Kundra.”
In an explosive disclosure, a struggling model Jennifer Kirti Singh has revealed Raj Kundra’s alleged corporate secrets. Raj Kundra’s father Bal Krishnan Kundra and one UK-based businessman Pardeep Bakshi—the current owner (only on paper) of a UK-based shell company that owned the Hotshots app, (which hosted live strip shows and porn content) of the entity Hotshots Digital Entertainment, was further owned by Kenrin Limited, a UK based company—were earlier both directors in a UK trading company Python Trading Ltd. This information has been obtained from Companies House, the UK government agency, the counterpart of the Indian ROC or Registrar of Companies and is a matter of online records, Kirti Singh has said.
Both Pardeep Bakshi and Raj’s father Bal Krishnan Kundra are known to each other and can be called “family friends”. So, in 2019, Raj Kundra invested Rs 10 crore in a Mumbai software firm Armsprime Media, which developed the Hotshots App along with apps for hundreds of models like Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey, Gehana Vasisth, etc. This was prominently publicised by Armsprime Media via official press releases. Most of the content featured on these apps was soft or semi porn or erotica.
Later, Raj Kundra exited and took out or divested his Rs 10 crore investment from Armsprime Media, as it was a crime and illegal to create or deal or transmit or publish porn in India. But why let go of the profits? So, he transferred the ownership of Hotshots app to Kenrin Limited, whose sole director is Pardeep Bakshi who is known to Raj Kundra’s father and can be called a “family friend”. Bakshi, a British citizen, is the benami owner on behalf of Kundra, of Hotshots and Kenrin Limited. Not surprising that Kundra’s BSE listed company Viaan Industries Ltd’s Managing Director Umesh Kamat (earlier arrested by Crime Branch) was selling/transmitting the porn videos to Kenrin Ltd. He was actually uploading the video files on to Kenrin servers, from where they were automatically loaded or transferred on to the Hotshots app.
UK-based Kenrin Limited’s apps and servers were run by people like Umesh Kamat in India using proxy servers, VPNs, tunneling and other technology to mask their origin IP addresses. Using software scripts and automated software, the entire business was run from an office located on the 7th floor of a commercial building opposite Infinity Mall, Lokhandwala at Andheri west.
Only to avoid legal responsibility for the pornographic content, ownership of Kenrin Ltd is shown as UK-based and owned by a British citizen Pardeep Bakshi. Bakshi has visited India and attended seminars and conferences on digital media, etc, in the past. The real owner of Kenrin Limited is allegedly Raj Kundra, while “family friend” Pardeep Bakshi is just a benami proxy only listed in the records of the UK companies’ registrar, Companies House. Raj Kundra is also a British citizen and businessman allegedly owning hundreds of shell companies across the world.
In addition to the above, the content providers like Yasmeen alias Rowa Khan (who were arrested earlier) had contracts signed with the UK-based Kenrin Ltd and facilitated through Mumbai-based Umesh Kamat who was Raj Kundra’s Managing Director (in Viaan Industries Ltd). Umesh Kamat was running the business of Kenrin, both in India and the UK, while Bakshi remained an owner on paper only to sign the reports and filings for the UK regulator, which were prepared by accountants.
There is a lot of foreign currency circulation by these companies, which needs further investigation, Kirti Singh has alleged. Besides, Raj Kundra’s company Viaan Industries Ltd (VIL) is a publicly listed company and listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Raj Kundra is the Chairman and main stake holder, while arrested accused Umesh Kamat is the (paid) MD as per information with the Bombay Stock Exchange. As per BSE rules, if any senior management official is arrested particularly the MD, BSE has to be informed immediately. This was not at all done when Umesh Kamat was arrested, though Kundra’s legal team claimed that Umesh was sacked. But the Stock Exchange was never informed though it was mandatory as per law. The “sacking” statement was only cosmetic, like cosmetic surgeries to evade criminal responsibility.