Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband businessman Raj Kundra for questioning in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal distribution of pornographic films, official sources said on Sunday.
He said Kundra has been asked to appear before the investigating officer of the case this week. Sources said that some other people involved in the case have also been summoned.
The central agency on December 29 raided the premises of Kundra in Mumbai and other persons located in some cities of Uttar Pradesh.
Kundra on Saturday said he is “fully complying” with the investigation that has been going on for the last four years.
Shetty’s lawyer had told PTI that the action was not against the actor and Kundra was “cooperating with the investigation to bring out the truth.”
The May 2022 money laundering case stems from at least two Mumbai Police FIRs and chargesheets filed against Kundra and others. The businessman and some others were arrested in the case and later granted bail.
This is the second case of money laundering against Kundra. Earlier this year, ED had seized assets worth Rs 98 crore of Kundra and Shetty in the cryptocurrency case. However, the couple got relief from the Bombay High Court against this attachment order.
The businessman told a local court in Mumbai in 2021 that the prosecution (Mumbai Police) did not have even an iota of evidence to link ‘Hotshots’, the app used in the alleged porn film racket, to offenses under the law.
According to the investigating agency, ‘Hotshots’ app was being used by the accused persons to upload and stream obscene content.
Kundra had claimed that there was no evidence of him being “actively” involved in the creation of the alleged pornographic material.
He had claimed that he was falsely implicated and that his name was not even in the FIR and that the respondent (police) had dragged him into the case.
The businessman claimed in the petition that he was being made a “scapegoat” for reasons better known to the investigators.
The police had registered the FIR based on complaints received from two women, while another woman had lodged a complaint at the Lonavala police station, about 120 km from Mumbai.
Police had said that during investigation it was revealed that some small artistes were promised breaks in some web series or short stories.
The official had said that these actors were called for auditions and were asked to do ‘bold’ scenes, which later turned out to be semi-nude or nude scenes, which were against the wishes of the actors.
During the police investigation, it also came to light that many ‘porn like apps’ were running in cyberspace.
The police had told the court that its investigation found that Kundra set up Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd, which purchased the Hotshots app through London-based Kenrin Pvt Ltd, to upload “objectionable videos” on social media.
Kundra’s phone contained WhatsApp chats regarding Kenrin and his financial transactions. Police had said that these conversations also revealed that he had discussed selling 119 adult films to a person for US$1.2 million.