Porn films racket: Raj Kundra files for discharge

Businessman Raj Kundra has sought discharge from the pornography case registered by Mumbai police for allegedly developing a mobile application to run the racket

Mumbai: Businessman Raj Kundra has sought discharge from the pornography case registered by Mumbai police for allegedly developing a mobile application to run the racket. Kundra has claimed that there is no direct or indirect financial link between him and the sale of pornographic material.

Kundra has claimed that there is no direct or indirect financial link between him and the sale of pornographic material (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

Kundra was named a key accused in the pornography case and was arrested on July 19 last year along with 10 other people. He was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Information Technology Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. He was released on bail two months later.

While seeking discharge, Kundra has claimed that in February 2019 one Saurabh Kushwah insisted that he should invest in his company, M/s Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd (AMPL), a company which was engaged in providing digital platform to celebrities and content creators to engage with their fans.

This was a subscription-based model where fans can subscribe to contents of any artists of their choice on payment of fees. The police claimed that the app was used to upload pornographic content.

Kundra said in his plea that “he is not aware nor was he ever involved in any process of content creation in connection with any of the clients of AMPL.” He also claimed that there is no evidence to show that he made any kind of monetary or other gain from this.

He said that “the case of prosecution is not that there are victims who were coerced or threatened by the present applicant (Kundra). That, none of the artists (clients of AMPL) ever raised any grievance or any alarms with regards to the so–called filming and broadcasting of erotic contents. By their own admission, their dispute is in respect of sharing of financial gains and consequential contractual obligations.”

Kundra also denied the allegations that he was involved in the shooting of any pornographic content. “It is a sole discretion of the individual artists to upload their contents on the app. The present applicant has not been involved in any business transaction on such agreements or for uploading such content on the app by artists,” Kundra said in the discharge plea.