Public prosecutor Aruna Pai on Saturday informed Bombay high court that “51 pornographic films were seized" from two apps by the Mumbai Crime branch. Raj Kundra and Ryan Thorpe were arrested as they had “started deleting WhatsApp group and chats" and hence “destroying evidence" so the police had to arrest them. “Instead of co-operating, they started deleting content from the WhatsApp groups and chats. Thus, they started destroying evidence. When an accused starts destroying evidence the investigating authorities cannot be mute spectators, they have to prevent them. Therefore in order to prevent them, they were arrested,” Pai told the Bombay high court on Saturday.
“Police has seized 51 movies under the Hotshot and Bolly Fame app during their search. Besides, more material was seized from Kundra’s personal laptop, mobile phone and Storage Area Network (SAN) device,” added Pai. A bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari refused to pass any order without hearing the prosecution, and after Public Prosecutor Arun Pai assured the court that the police will file its reply, posted the matter for further hearing. The police claimed that Raj Kundra was a financial beneficiary in the HotShots app, the streaming service at the center of the porn racket. However, Raj Kundra has denied the claims. The police claimed that it had "sufficient evidences" that Raj Kundra was the key conspirator in the case. The police have also arrested 10 persons so far in the porn videos racket. Raj Kundra was arrested on July 19 for his involvement in porn creation and distribution racket.