Motivated probe shows I’m not involved: Raj Kundra in fresh plea

MUMBAI: After a chargesheet was submitted by crime branch, in a fresh bail plea, businessman Raj Kundra, arrested in the pornography case, claimed “motivated” investigations clearly show that he was not involved in any offence even in the remotest way. Kundra’s bail plea submitted through advocate Prashant Patil said he was not even related to uploading or broadcasting of allegedly questionable content.The plea will come up for hearing on Monday.
The plea said the case of the prosecution in the supplementary chargesheet was not that there are victims who were coerced or threatened by him. He submitted that no artist raised any grievance or alarms on alleged filming and broadcasting of erotic content.
Kundra was arrested in July with his company’s IT head Ryan Thorpe. Kundra withdrew his earlier bail plea. Kundra’s bail plea said around February 2019, considering the popularity and scope of business of OTT platforms, Saurabh Kushwa insisted he invest in his venture, Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd (AMPL). Kundra said he accepted the proposal as a sleeping partner.
He said he was associated with AMPL only till December 2019. Kundra’s plea said during this time he never took an active part in content creation. The plea said the Hotshots app created by AMPL has “nothing to do with pornography or content which is within the purview of an offence”. “There is not an iota of evidence till date with the prosecution that would connect the app of Hotshots with an offence under law,” the plea said.
It said AMPL had nothing to do with pornographic content. “The case of the prosecution in the supplementary chargesheet is not that there are victims who were coerced or threatened by the present applicant (Kundra)... that none of the artists (clients of AMPL) raised any grievance or alarms with regards to the alleged filming and broadcasting of erotic content. By their own admission, their dispute is in respect of sharing of financial gains and consequential contractual obligation,” the bail plea said.
It said statements of “so-called witnesses ” in the first chargesheet reflects that the victims were adults and they have voluntarily acted in “so-called video shootings”. “There is not a single allegation in the supplementary chargesheet against the applicant (Kundra) that he was actively involved in any video-shootings. In fact, it is a sole discretion of the individual artists to upload content on the app,” the plea said.
It also said he was falsely implicated and made a scapegoat.