Porn racket: I was framed as I refused to pay money to police, says man who alleged bribe demand

Businessman Raj Kundra is among the 11 people arrested in the case so far

The mystery man in the alleged porn racket who claimed that Raj Kundra had paid Rs 25 lakh to cops during the initial days of the probe has told mid-day that he is being framed by the police for refusing to pay up. The man identified himself over the phone as Arvindkumar Srivastava, alias Yash Thakur, and said he is just a middleman for Nuefliks.com that allegedly uploads X-rated content.

Srivastava has emerged as a riddle for the Mumbai police since none of the accused has ever seen him. The police say he used to coordinate with the accused for porn videos through WhatsApp chats. So far, 11 people have been arrested, including actor Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra, in the case for allegedly producing adult videos and making money out of it.

"I am a Singapore national and my parents live in Kanpur. I do outsourcing for multiple companies and my job profile is to manage servers, OTT platform solution design, find people with skills on social media and get the content submitted to Nuefliks platform. I use Yash Thakur as my social media identity and my real name is Arvindkumar Srivastava. I am hired by Nueflliks as a freelance consultant for managing operations," Srivastava told mid-day.

Actress Gehna Vasisth, one of the accused. She allegedly used her production company to make porn videos

According to the charge sheet filed in April, Thakur owns Nuefliks.com and would procure porn videos from production houses and upload them on his website. It says there were financial transactions and WhatsApp chats between Thakur and accused actress Gehna Vasisth, Tanvir Hashmi, alias Tan, Rowa Khan and Kundra's former PA Umesh Kamat.

Srivastava shared a few papers with mid-day to claim that Nuefliks is an OTT platform based in California. "Whatever videos and contents we have purchased all are erotica and not pornography and I do not own Nuefliks company and same has been conveyed to the Mumbai crime by Nuefliks on their letterhead. The company has also informed them about the bribe demand from a middleman who said I needed to pay Rs 18 to 20 lakh to sort out everything like everyone took Kundra's name but he wasn't arrested because he had paid Rs 25 lakh to the officers," he said.

Also read: Raj Kundra will soon face money-laundering charges, employees turn witnesses in porn racket case

Srivastava alleged the cops targeted him since they can't do anything against Nuefliks. "They have frozen my ICICI account of Kanpur branch as well as my parents' accounts who are 70 and 80 years old. My father gets his pension in it and they are being harassed by the Mumbai police," he said.

As per the police, the three seized accounts collectively have more than Rs 4.2 crore. The charge sheet says money from Nuefliks was transferred to these accounts in Kanpur. Srivastava said Nuefliks has already written to the Mumbai crime branch clarifying that he got money from them under an interim arrangement to manage their India operations.

The mystery man came on police radar after they got a WhatsApp chat between accused Hashmi and Yash Thakur. Tracking of the bank details took them to Srivastava's parents in Kanpur. The charge sheet says Srivastava had visited the city in February 2020, though he told mid-day it was in February 2019.

‘Dead man wakes up'

Until they met Srivastava's parents, the police thought he and Yash Thakur were two different persons and they had issued a Lookout Circular against both. The charge sheet says the crime branch investigation showed that Thakur lived in Indore but died in August 2020 due to a brain tumor. The Lookout Circular against Thakur was then struck off.

The crime branch apparently learnt that Srivastava was deliberately using the identity of a dead man to evade law enforcement agencies. "I am saying that I use both identities and I don't know any person named Yash Thakur. Like Akshay Kumar uses two identities and various people in the film industry do," Srivastava said.

‘The Indian connection'

The police have found that the wife of a Bhopal-based intelligence agency officer owned a company named Flizmovies OPC Pvt. Ltd. The officer said he first met Thakur on Yahoo Messenger in 2005. They reconnected over Facebook in 2017. Thakur started talking about making an OTT platform to host award-winning short films. "He came up with the idea of Flizmovies and asked me to open it on my name as he was in Singapore. After speaking to my wife I opened it in her name in March 2019," the officer said in his statement.

The officer told the police Thakur mostly managed the affairs of the company. However, he backed out after he found porn contents on the website in August last year. He said he argued with Thakur and asked him to shut down everything that was in his wife's name. Later, the company was acquired by Nuefliks, which cops say is owned by Srivastava.

Srivastava told mid-day that he doesn't remember any central government official and that he just helped Flizmovies sell its rights to Nuefliks.

Rs 4.2 cr
Money in three frozen accounts of Srivastava and his parents

11
No. of people arrested in the case so far