Pornography case: Raj Kundra's lawyer says no confirmation on money-laundering case filed by ED, assures full co-operation

Trouble doesn't seem to go away for businessman Raj Kundra. Now, new developments have come to haunt him.

A day after reports of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering a money-laundering investigation against Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's husband in connection with creation of alleged pornographic films, Kundra's lawyer issued a statement that they have had no communication from the central probing agency.

In a statement to ETimes, Advocate Prashant Patil also said that Kundra is willing to cooperate with the inquiry if the reports are true.


"We have not received any official confirmation/communication from the Enforcement Directorate regarding any ECIR filed in the said case against my client, Raj Kundra. However, if the media reports about ED taking up the matter are true then it’s my clients' duty to cooperate with the inquiry/investigation conducted by ED regarding the said matter."

On Thursday, the federal agency filed a complaint under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after studying at least two police first information reports (FIRs) and subsequent charge sheets before a court.

Kundra, his associate Ryan Thorpe and others were arrested by the Mumbai Police crime branch in 2021 for allegedly making pornographic films, and were later granted bail in the case.

The 46-year-old was arrested after being booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

The ED will look into the trail of funds and alleged proceeds of crime that could have been generated by Kundra and others in the case related to the creation and sale of these films, officials told PTI.

The ED sources told ANI that Kundra formed a company named Arms Prime Media Limited in February 2019 and developed an app 'Hotshots' under its banner. The platform was later sold to a UK-based company Kenrin. It was understood that Kenrin's CEO is Pradeep Bakshi, Kundra's brother-in-law.

Later, Kundra's company Viaan Industries tied up with Kenrin for the maintenance of the app, and transactions of crores of rupees were made to 13 bank accounts of Viaan. Sources further said that Hotshots was a platform for porn movies, which were made in India and offered for subscriptions. The money earned through subscribers came into the account of Kundra's company Viaan Industries.

Last year, the businessman had claimed there was no evidence of him being "actively" involved in the creation of alleged questionable porn content. He had said he was falsely implicated and was not even named in the FIR and was dragged by the respondent (police) in the case.

The businessman also claimed in the plea that he is being made a "scapegoat" for reasons best known to investigators.

The police had filed FIRs based on complaints received from two women.

During the investigation it came to light that some small-time artists were lured by giving them breaks in some web series or short stories, police had said.

These actors were called for auditions and were asked to give 'bold' scenes, which later turned out to be semi-nude or nude scenes, that were against the wishes of the actors, the official had said.

During the police investigation, it also came to light that there were many porn-like apps (applications) that were operating in cyberspace.

The police had told the court that its probe found that Kundra allegedly set up Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd, which, through London-based Kenrin Pvt Ltd, bought the Hot Shots app to upload "objectionable videos" on social media.

Kundra's phone contained WhatsApp chats regarding Kenrin and its economic transactions. These conversations also revealed that he had allegedly discussed selling 119 adult films to a person for $1.2 million, police had said.