Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty’s husband arrested in porn production case

Mumbai police have arrested Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty’s husband, Raj Kundra, for allegedly producing and broadcasting pornographic films online.

Police announced Kundra’s arrest late on Monday, calling the 45-year-old “the key conspirator” in a case involving the creation and publication of adult films via internet apps.

“We have sufficient evidence regarding this,” police said in a press release, adding that investigations were continuing.

The firm of businessman and actor Kundra had a tie-up with a London-based company that was involved in streaming pornographic content through a mobile app, Mumbai Police said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Joint Commissioner of Police Milind Bharambe said that the police has not yet been able to any find any active role of Shetty in the case.

“Crime Branch Mumbai this February registered a case related to pornographic films. New actors were promised roles in web series and short stories and they were asked to do bold and nude scenes in auditions. Female actors opposed this and approached the Crime Branch based on which a case was registered,” Bharambe said.

He told reporters that all the pornographic content was being uploaded on a mobile application named “Hotshots”, owned by a London-based company.

“During a detailed investigation, Raj Kundra’s company located in Viaan had a tie-up with London-based company Kenrin that owns mobile application Hotshots. All nude content created in Mumbai was published on Hotshots, which was operated from Mumbai. After complaints, this app was taken down by Google Play Store and iPhone,” Bharambe said.

Kundra was remanded to police custody till July 23.

The arrest is the latest scandal to hit Kundra, who has two children with Shetty, the 2007 winner of British reality show, Celebrity Big Brother.

In 2015, Kundra was banned for life from all cricket-related activities, following an investigation into match-fixing during his stint as a co-owner with Shetty of the Rajasthan Royals, a franchise in the hugely successful Indian Premier League.

Shetty, who has not issued a statement on her husband’s arrest, has been targeted by trolls on social media over the case.

In fact, she did not show up on the “Super Dancer chapter 4” shoot on Tuesday. A source from the dance reality show set told indianexpress.com that she was absent from the set.

They said, “Shilpa is quite disturbed with Raj’s arrest. She did not feel up to coming to the shoot today, and has been home, taking care of her kids.”

In an interview earlier, Kundra had spoken about how anything that he does has a direct effect on his wife. He also admitted that because of this, it has become difficult for him to work in India.

India has stringent laws against publishing and transmitting “obscene material”, but watching pornography in private is legal.

According to the adult site, Pornhub, the nation of 1.3 billion was its third largest worldwide source of traffic in 2018.