68 porn films found on Raj Kundra's laptop; he deleted iCloud account: Mumbai Crime Branch to Bombay HC

The Mumbai Crime Branch on Monday told the Bombay High Court that they have recovered 68 porn videos from Raj Kundras laptop and he has deleted his iCloud account The crime branch further said that it was able to retrieve some emails from the iCloud with the help of cyber expertsThe high court was hearing a plea challenging Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpes arrest by the crime branch for not following due process as per lawKundra and Thorpe in their applications have termed their arrest as illegal contending mandatory provision of issuing notices to them under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC was not followedThe court later reserved the order on the plea challenging their arrestAs per section 41A the police may in cases where arrest is not warranted issue summons to the accused person and record his or her statementWhile Kundra was arrested by the crime branch on July 19 Thorpe who was employed as the IT head in Kundras firm was arrested on July 20 The duo is now in jail under judicial custodyPublic prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai on Monday told a single bench of Justice A S Gadkari that notices under section 41A were indeed issued to both Kundra and Thorpe before their arrestAlso Read Shilpa Shettys defamation suit HC asks media outlets to take down content says not a gag on medialdquoKundra refused to accept it while Thorpe accepted itrdquo Pai saidShe argued that the accused Kundra and Thorpe were arrested due to their conduct during the searches being carried out by the police at their office premises on July 19ldquoThey Kundra and Thorpe were found deleting certain WhatsApp chats The attitude of the applicant Raj Kundra speaks volume of his cooperation in the investigation We do not know how much data has been deleted The police are still trying to retrieve itrdquo Pai saidShe further told the court that Section 201 of the IPC destruction of evidence was subsequently invoked against the accused persons ldquoIf accused persons are destroying evidence then can the investigating agency be a mute spectatorrdquo Pai askedldquoKundra is the admin of the app HotShots which is at the centre of the alleged porn racket During searches the police seized a laptop from the office of Kundra in which 68 porn videos were recovered This is in addition to the 51 videos recovered earlier from the Storage Area Networkrdquo Pai saidShe further argued that from Kundras laptop the police have recovered scripts with sexual content and a presentation on the financial projection and marketing strategy of HotShots and another similar app BollyFameKundras counsel Aabad Ponda refuted the polices allegations and said all his devices including his phone and laptops were seized by the police during the searchThorpes counsel Abhinav Chandrachud argued that while a notice under 41A was issued to Thorpe he was not given time to comply or respond to it Before Thorpe could act on the notice he was arrested he saidChandrachud further said there were several discrepancies which cast a doubt on the prosecutions caseAfter the lawyers concluded their arguments the HC reserved its order on the petitionsKundra in his plea in the HC has also said the material which the police claimed to be pornographic did not depict explicit sexual acts but shows material in the form of short movies which are lascivious or appeal to the prurient interest of persons at bestIn a related development a sessions court on Monday reserved its order on an anticipatory bail application filed by Kundra seeking prearrest bail in a similar case related to porn content registered by the Mumbai police last yearThe sessions court will pass its order on the prearrest bail plea on AugustWith inputs from Faizan Khan