After Raj Kundra, police make 10 arrests in porn racket case
Police have so far arrested 11 people, including businessman Raj Kundra, in the sensational porn racket case. All 11 have been booked under IPC sections of cheating, outraging modesty and indulging in obscene acts at public places and provisions of the IT Act.
In February, a team of crime branch raided a Madh bungalow and busted a porn film racket. Police arrested five aides of Yasmeen Khan alias Rowa (42) who was the producer-director.
Along with Yasmeen, the other four accused arrested were identified as actors Mohammed Ateef Saifi, Bhanu Thakur, photographer Monu Joshi and creative director Pratibha Nalawade.
The sixth arrest is that of model Vandana Ravindra Tiwari alias Gehna Vashisth (32). Her questioning led to the arrest of UK-based firm Kenrin’s MD Umesh Kamat, who was arrested on February 8.
According to the police, Vashisth ran a production house where he used to record and send pornographic videos to Kamat, who then uploaded these videos on porn sites using foreign IP addresses.
Vashisth’s legal team has denied all charges and claimed that she has only made erotic movies. Kamat had allegedly worked for Raj Kundra. The crime branch has alleged that Kenrin is linked to Raj Kundra and Kamat was earlier working with Kundra’s company Viaan Industries Ltd.
Rowa’s Dipankar Paritosh Khasanvis (38) alias Shaan was also arrested for aiding and abetting in the crime.
Tanveer Hashmi (40) alias Ton’s name surfaced during the interrogation of Vashisth and other arrested accused he was in touch with. He used to make obscene videos allegedly from Vashisth and others and later sell them to several mobile app owners.
On July 19, Raj Kundra and his company’s IT head Ryan Thorpe were arrested. As crime branch gathered evidence that Kenrin is related to Kundra, they collected incriminating material during searches at Kundra’s office.