The Crime Branch of the Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed a supplementary chargesheet against businessman Raj Kundra and three others in a case related to broadcasting sexually explicit content on an over-the-top, or OTT, platform, The Indian Express reported.
In the chargesheet, the police have also named Ryan Thorpe, the IT head of Kundra’s company Viaan Industries, Singapore resident Yash Thakur alias Arvind Kumar Shrivastava and Kundra’s brother-in-law Sandeep Bakshi.
The Crime Branch had filed the first chargesheet in the case naming nine accused in April.
The police have alleged that Kundra’s company had coerced women into shooting nude pictures and videos by promising to give them opportunities to act in films.
In the supplementary chargesheet, the police said that the property cell of the Crime Branch had conducted an investigation. The inquiry found that Kundra was the “main facilitator” in the case related to the pornographic films, PTI reported.
The Crime Branch said that they found proof against the businessman after technical analysis, getting statements of witnesses and through documents confiscated from his office.
Earlier, the police alleged that Kundra had sold a video streaming app that created pornographic content to Bakshi, who lives in the United Kingdom.
The police have also alleged that Thakur was involved in some apps that uploaded sexually explicit content, according to The Indian Express.
The police have frozen Rs 6.5 crore in bank accounts linked to Thakur, India Today reported.
The supplementary chargesheet runs into 1,467 pages and has the statements of 43 witnesses, the police have said.
The statements of five of these witnesses have been recorded before a magistrate as per Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Under this provision, statements can be considered as evidence before a court of law.
The charges against Kundra
The Mumbai police have booked Kundra under Sections 354(C) (voyeurism), 292 (sale of obscene content) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.
The first information report also invoked sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, which deal with the transmission of sexually explicit material.
The police have alleged that Kundra and Thorpe took advantage of young women from poor families and made sexually explicit videos by coercing them. The women said they were cheated as they were given nominal compensations, or sometimes not paid at all, said the police, according to PTI.
Kundra and Thorpe had also allegedly destroyed WhatsApp chats and e-mails that contained crucial evidence in the case, according to the police. Both of them are currently in judicial custody, and their bail pleas are pending before a sessions court in Mumbai.
Kundra has argued that his arrest was illegal as he was not given a notice to appear before the police first. He has also contended that the videos mentioned in the case were not pornographic as they did not explicitly show sexual acts.
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