Actor Shilpa Shetty’s millionaire husband Raj Kundra, who was arrested on Monday for allegedly producing and selling pornographic films, tried to mislead the investigating agencies by selling his app ‘Hotshots’, the police said.

To mislead investigating agencies, Kundra, 45, sold his app ‘Hotshots’ to the UK-based company Kenrin Pvt Ltd owned by his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi but controlled activities from Mumbai, police said on Tuesday, according to The Times of India. Pornography laws in UK are said to be less stringent as compared to India.

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Raj Kundra is accused of streaming porn videos through the ‘Hotshots’ app, which has now been removed from mobile platforms. According to police, he sold the app for $25,000 in 2019, the report adds.

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.

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The Mumbai police has said that Kundra appears to be the ‘key conspirator’ in the pornography racket. Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale issued a statement on Monday on Kundra’s arrest which said, “There was a case registered with Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about the creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some Apps. We’ve arrested Mr Raj Kundra in this case on 19/7/21 as he appears to be the key conspirator of this.”

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A 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.