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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday interrogated actor Gehana Vasisth for seven hours for her suspected role in the alleged production and distribution of pornographic content through mobile apps. The actor has been asked to appear on Tuesday for further questioning.
Vasisth was earlier arrested by Mumbai Police on February 6, 2021, based on cyber data and details revealed by a few other suspects.
Police then suspected that she was linked to recording obscene videos uploaded to illegal mobile apps and sites, including abroad.
The money laundering probe by the ED is based on a case registered by the Mumbai Police in February 2021, following a raid on a bungalow in Madh Island, where a production company was allegedly filming intimate videos and posting them streamed via websites and mobile apps such as Hotshots.
While five people were arrested on the spot, a young female actor gave a witness statement and helped expose the alleged pornography racket.
The investigation later revealed that despite their reluctance, the suspect had exerted pressure to convince female actors to shoot intimate scenes.
The ED will likely also issue a summons businessman Raj Kundrahusband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, to question him and record his statement this week. The agency had summoned him twice last week, but he didn’t show up and asked for more time.
The move to question Gehana, Kundra and others follows raids recently conducted by the ED at 15 locations linked to the suspects in Maharashtra and UP during which several bank accounts were frozen and cyber digital devices were collected.
The ED is examining data and documents recovered during the searches and is focusing on tracing the flow of the alleged proceeds of crime across the country and abroad to identify the end beneficiaries in the case, sources said.
‘Made erotic films, not porn’
Gehna Vasisth told HT that the ED called her to find out how many films she had shot for the Hotshots app, her earnings from it, how many times she had met Kundra and whether Kundra owned the Hotshots app. “I worked with the agency,” she said.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I am involved in this case and am not involved in money laundering activities.”
Vasisth added that the films she made for the Hotshots app were in the erotic genre, not the porn category.
The actor said she directed and produced eleven short films and starred in one of them. “I’ve done three other films as an actor,” she said. ‘I have ₹3 lakh per film for the 11 films. The reception of ₹33 lakh was registered and the police froze the bank accounts.”
Vasisth said she was paid by check from British firm Kenrin Pvt Ltd, adding that the ED had recently searched her residence on November 29 but found nothing incriminating.
The accused claimed that she never associated with Raj Kundra for the films she made. “I didn’t get any money from him,” she said. “I only met him once in January 2021 when two of his other apps were launched. I only contacted Umesh Kamat, who arranged the meeting.”
Vasisth said that sometimes Kamat took her to a place that seemed to be Kundra’s office or connected to him as she saw his photos there.
“But this is just my assumption,” she added. Kamat was arrested by Mumbai Police earlier in the case.
On July 19, 2021, the crime branch arrested Kundra and the IT head of one of his companies to trace the alleged links between Kundra and Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd, which runs the Hotshots app through Kenrin Pvt Ltd.
Police later claimed that Armsprime was originally owned by Kundra and was later sold to Kenrin Pvt Ltd, a company owned by his relative.
In September 2021, the crime branch filed a chargesheet against Kundra and other suspects, alleging that Kundra approx. ₹1.17 crore from Hotshots’ nearly 20 lakh subscribers between August and December 2020.
Previous cases against Kundra
Kundra was in the crosshairs of the ED in the past also in two separate cases. In April, the ED had provisionally attached his assets ₹97.79 crore, including a Juhu flat, in connection with a ₹6,600 Crore Bitcoin-based Ponzi Scheme.
According to ED sources, Kundra is said to have received 285 bitcoins, worth approx ₹150 crore, from the mastermind of the case, Amit Bhardwaj.
In October 2019, the ED questioned Kundra to record his statement on the then investigation into late gangster Iqbal Mirchi’s assets.
Kundra was questioned in connection with an alleged transaction between one of his firms and a firm linked to a real estate dealer arrested in the case. Kundra later tweeted that he had sold the plot in question much earlier.
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