Raj Kundra, his employee Ryan Thorpe get bail in pornographic film case

A local court in Mumbai on Monday granted bail to businessman Raj Kundra and his Information Technology (IT) head Ryan Thorpe on a surety of Rs50,000. 

The crime branch of Mumbai Police arrested Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra in July and filed a supplementary chargesheet against him on September 15 for his alleged involvement in pornographic film racket.

While seeking bail in the case, Kundra told Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai that the videos were shot with the consent of the 'actors' and claimed that he owned the mobile app Hotshots only for a brief period of 10 months. 

Hotshots mobile app was developed for streaming adult and pornographic content that Kundra's firm produced.

Kundra also claimed in his plea that during the time that he owned Hotshots, he had interacted with a few clients but had "never taken an active part in contract building or any of the content creation."

In its 1,467-page supplementary chargesheet, police presented statements of at least 42 people they have interrogated, including that of Shilpa Shetty, who said she was too busy with her work and was not aware of what Kundra was up to.

Mumbai Police called Raj Kundra a "key conspirator" and charged him with cheating and for obscene and indecent advertisements and displays under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Police also used sections of the Information Technology Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act against Kundra. 

The businessman was arrested on July 19 along with 10 others for their alleged role in the production of pornographic content through an app called Hotshots.

Mumbai Police stated in their remand application at that time that Kundra earned over ₹1.17 crore from subcribers of Hotshots app on Apple's App Store between August and December 2020.