Mumbai | A day after the sensational arrest of businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, in an alleged porn film case, Mumbai Police has arrested a technical expert in connection with the investigation. Official sources gave this information here on Tuesday. Earlier, Kundra was arrested by the Crime Branch-CID in the alleged pornographic video racket case.
The police have arrested Ryan John Tharpe, who looks after the technical aspects of Kundra-Shetty’s companies, from Nerul in Navi Mumbai for his alleged role and involvement in the said alleged porn film case.
Both were produced before the Mumbai magistrate, who remanded them to police custody till July 23.
With this, the total number of arrests, in this case, has so far gone up to 12 and many more suspects are still on the police radar.
Tharpe is an IT man who is said to be closely associated with Kundra and Shetty’s companies, which are now being probed for a porn racket with potential international ramifications.
Official sources say that investigators have recovered some incriminating material, WhatsApp chats, and other paraphernalia, while the role of other known and unknown persons in the entire racket is also being probed.
Kundra, 46, was arrested late Monday night for creating and publishing obscene material and publishing it through mobile applications.
Kundra’s arrest was announced by Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale himself on the basis of a case registered in February.
Kundra, a British-Indian businessman, was under the scanner of the Crime Branch-CID since February before he was arrested by the police on Monday night.
His sudden arrest has shocked the entire Bollywood, which is already under the scanner of various narcotics agencies for the past year, thereby tarnishing the image of the industry.
Nagrale said, “A case has been registered on behalf of the crime branch about making obscene films and publishing them through some apps. We have arrested Raj Kundra in this case, as he appears to be the main conspirator. ”
“We have enough evidence in this regard. Further investigation is on,” the police chief said.
