Businessman Raj Kundra had managed to avoid arrest in the adult films racket case because he allegedly bribed Mumbai Crime Branch officers, said a report by Mid-Day. According to the report, an accused in the same case alleged that Kundra paid Rs 25 lakh as a bribe to crime branch officers to escape police arrests. 

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The bribery allegations were levelled by Arvind Srivastava also known as Yash Thakur, the kingpin of the porn racket under question. Srivastava first complained about Kundra’s bribe offers to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and then forwarded his complaint to the Mumbai police chief’s office in April.

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The complainant of the bribery charges was Fliz Movies, previously known as Nuefliks, a US-based firm owned by Arvind Srivastava. The firm came under the Mumbai police’s radar earlier this year and two of Srivastava’s two bank accounts with about Rs 4.5 crores were seized during the investigation.

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As per the report, the bribery complaint filed via email also included screenshots of the alleged bribe chat but did not refer to Kundra. 

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However, the complaint seems to have gone uninvestigated. “The ACB investigates only if there is demand for money and it can lay a trap. Since, in this case, the money had already exchanged hands, as alleged, the complaint was forwarded to the concerned department (Mumbai police) to initiate an action.”  a senior-level ACB officer told Mid-Day.

The allegations came in the spotlight after millionaire businessman Raj Kundra was arrested on Monday by the property cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch in connection with a pornography racket that the police busted in February.  

Kundra is currently in judicial custody along with his close aide and co-accused in the case, Ryan Tharpe. He was reportedly a techie associate for their app Hotshots.

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The racket of making and publishing pornographic content came to light in February this year when a woman approached the Mumbai Police alleging 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.