Businessman Raj Kundra’s arrest, for creating pornographic films, comes months after a series of allegations leveled against him by one Sagrika Shona Suman, backed by other actresses.

On February 13 this year, Suman, a Mumbai-based actress, alleged that Kundra is the real brain behind the porn racket. “For last one year Hotshots App is referred to as Raj Kundra’s company by everyone in the industry. The money and paper trail may be difficult to find but it definitely exists,” Suman said.

She alleged that she was approached several times by arrested accused Umesh Kamat who openly claimed that he worked for Kundra and that he was the owner of Hotshots and Kenrin, another app hosting porn.

A while back, a UK production house, found to be uploading adult content, came under the police scanner and its executive Umesk Kamat was arrested. An officer said that it was Kundra’s alleged connection to Kamat and the company that uploaded such pornographic content that landed him in trouble.

The porn films were allegedly shot in India, transferred using WeTransfer to the UK and released on paid mobile apps. The police said the films were shot in houses and hotels rented in Mumbai. Models were allegedly pulled in with promises of film offers and then forced to shoot porn.

Kundra had applied for anticipatory bail last month in connection with a case registered by the Maharashtra Cyber police last year. In that case too, the Cyber police had registered an FIR against various platforms which they said were involved in showcasing pornographic content. The court is likely to decide on the anticipatory bail application next week.

According to several media reports, Kundra had earlier invested Rs 10 crore in Navi Mumbai-based IT firm Armsprime which developed mobile Apps for adult actresses like Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey, Gehana Vasisth and hundreds others.

Commenting on Raj’s arrest, Poonam Pandey said, “At this moment my heart goes out to Shilpa Shetty and her kids. I can’t imagine what she must be going through. So, I refuse to use this opportunity to highlight my trauma. The only thing I’ll add is that I have filed a police complaint in 2019 against Raj Kundra and subsequently registered a case at the honourable high court of Bombay against him for fraud and theft. This matter is sub judice, hence I would prefer to limit my statements. Also, I have full faith in our police & the judicial process.”

“There was a case registered with the Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some Apps. We’ve arrested Mr Raj Kundra in this case on 19/7/21 as he appears to be the key conspirator of this. We have sufficient evidence regarding this,” Mumbai police commissioner said in a statement on Monday evening.