As purported WhatsApp chats between businessman Raj Kundra, who was arrested on Monday for allegedly producing and selling porn films, and his staff started doing the rounds on the Internet, one name that cropped was was that of an ‘artist’ named Priya Sengupta.

Immediately questions started around who this woman was? According to the unverified chats being shared online, actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra purportedly wrote on the group, “@Pradeep Bakshi one of my live artist Priya Sen Gupta she has not received her payment yet…”. Bakshi is Kundra’s brother-in-law.

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Police say that Kundra, 45, sold his app ‘HotShots‘ to UK-based company Kenrin Pvt Ltd owned by Bakshi but controlled activities from Mumbai, according to The Times of India. Pornography laws in UK are said to be less stringent as compared to that of India. According to police, he sold the app for $25,000 in 2019, the report adds.

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The WhatsApp chat group, reportedly called ‘H Accounts’,  discussed revenues and payments, how much is earned every day, how much money to pay to actors, how to earn business, or how the earnings are declining, according to reports.

Raj Kundra is accused of streaming porn videos through the ‘Hotshots’ app, which has now been removed from mobile platforms.

According to reports, Kundra was booked last year too by the Maharashtra Police Cyber Cell for producing and creating pornographic content. The Cell had registered a case against several OTT platforms, including HotShots, reports India Today. That time, too, Kundra had told the police that he had sold his shares of the company and had submitted documents of exit formalities to the authorities, the report adds.

Kundra’s arrest followed a woman’s complaint to the Mumbai Police in February in which she alleged that Raj Kundra and others were luring young women and men with offers of roles in web series and short films and then forcing them to act in porn films instead.