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

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 midday 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 Nueflikscom that allegedly uploads Xrated contentSrivastava 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 Shettyrsquos husband Raj Kundra in the case for allegedly producing adult videos and making money out of itldquoI 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 operationsrdquo Srivastava told middayActress Gehna Vasisth one of the accused She allegedly used her production company to make porn videosAccording to the charge sheet filed in April Thakur owns Nueflikscom 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 Kundrarsquos former PA Umesh KamatSrivastava shared a few papers with midday to claim that Nuefliks is an OTT platform based in California ldquoWhatever 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 Kundrarsquos name but he wasnrsquot arrested because he had paid Rs 25 lakh to the officersrdquo he saidAlso read Raj Kundra will soon face moneylaundering charges employees turn witnesses in porn racket caseSrivastava alleged the cops targeted him since they canrsquot do anything against Nuefliks ldquoThey have frozen my ICICI account of Kanpur branch as well as my parentsrsquo accounts who are 70 and 80 years old My father gets his pension in it and they are being harassed by the Mumbai policerdquo he saidAs per the police the three seized accounts collectively have more than Rs 42 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 operationsThe 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 Srivastavarsquos parents in Kanpur The charge sheet says Srivastava had visited the city in February 2020 though he told midday it was in February 2019lsquoDead man wakes uprsquoUntil they met Srivastavarsquos 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 offThe crime branch apparently learnt that Srivastava was deliberately using the identity of a dead man to evade law enforcement agencies ldquoI am saying that I use both identities and I donrsquot know any person named Yash Thakur Like Akshay Kumar uses two identities and various people in the film industry dordquo Srivastava saidlsquoThe Indian connectionrsquoThe police have found that the wife of a Bhopalbased 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 awardwinning short films ldquoHe 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 2019rdquo the officer said in his statementThe 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 wifersquos name Later the company was acquired by Nuefliks which cops say is owned by SrivastavaSrivastava told midday that he doesnrsquot remember any central government official and that he just helped Flizmovies sell its rights to NuefliksRs 42 crMoney in three frozen accounts of Srivastava and his parents11No of people arrested in the case so far