Raj Kundra was arrested in a case related to production and distribution of porn films. (File)
Raj Kundra, Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty's husband, has been sent to judicial custody for 14 days in a case involving production and distribution of pornographic films.
He was arrested on July 19 and this is the third time that his judicial custody has been extended.
Two of his bank accounts have been sealed as the probe intensifies, officials have said, adding that one of the bank accounts had over Rs 1 crore. His office was searched last week and investigators have come across several messages - linked to the businessman's controversial app HotShots - from his mobile and laptops.
HotShots is at the centre of this probe and the police believe it was used for streaming porn.
The app, according to police, was removed from the Google Play Store for Android phones and Apple's App Store, so the accused "activated Plan B" and launched another app, Bollyfame.
Last week, actor Shilpa Shetty told Mumbai Police she was unaware of the exact nature of content on 'Hotshots, news agency ANI reported.
Police sources told ANI that Ms Shetty said it was another accused - London-based Pradeep Bakshi, Mr Kundra's brother-in-law - who was involved with the app. Stressing the difference between 'erotica' and 'pornography', she said Mr Kundra was not involved in producing pornographic content.
Mr Kundra has also denied any wrongdoing. At a hearing last week, his lawyer, Abad Ponda, objected to the content being classified as pornography.
The content could not come under Section 67 of the IT Act - for which bail is not allowed - as similar material is available on OTT platforms like Netflix, Mr Ponda said. "Police is following what web series are doing these days - vulgar content. But that's not really classified as porn. Nothing in this remand shows that two people actually indulged in act of intercourse. If it's not actual intercourse, it's not classified as porn," Mr Ponda told the court.
The 45-year-old businessman's close aide Ryan Thorpe, who looked after his company's tech matters, was also arrested last week.