Shady businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of actor Shilpa Shetty has been multitasking his way into a world of controversies. He is accused of a multitude of crimes: his involvement in the money laundering cases, his links to the Underworld, the mastermind of the pornography industry, the IPL Spot fixing case, and now the Bitcoin Scam. He was finally arrested by the Mumbai police on 19th July over his alleged involvement in the pornography scandal. Kundra shamelessly showed the victory sign to the media storming him.
Bollywood actress Poonam Pandey also decided to reveal about the accused businessman after he was arrested by the Mumbai police in the pornography case. She said, “At this moment my heart goes out to Shilpa Shetty and her kids. I can’t imagine what she must be going through. So, I refuse to use this opportunity to highlight my trauma.”
“The only thing I’ll add is that I have filed a police complaint in 2019 against Raj Kundra and subsequently registered a case at the high court of Bombay against him for fraud & theft. Also, I have full faith in our police & the judicial process” She added in reference to a case she filed against Kundra and his associates in 2019.
She accused Kundra of calling her at odd hours from across India and even Karachi and requesting her to strip. It all began in March 2019, when she collaborated with his company for an app named after her, a certain percentage of the revenue generated by the app was to be given to her. The app displayed her number along with the tagline, ‘Call me now as I am free to talk’ and ‘Call me now. Let us talk and I will strip for you.’
Her app was managed by Raj Kundra’s company, as she agreed with them. But prior to her notice they later leaked her personal number and eventually, she started receiving calls from all over India. The calls came, not in dozens but thousands, at odd hours, asking her for explicit services. She said that she terminated it a month later. In fact, she even left the country for three months hoping that the situation will get better but sadly it didn’t.
Poonam has now accused Kundra and his company of continuing with the app, despite her terminating the contract. She even messaged Saurabh Kushwah who happens to be one of the associates of the app company, to refrain from uploading her explicit contents but they are continue to do so.
The actress had to face constant threats of abduction, rape, murder and acid attacks. Her right to life and privacy as protected under Article 21 of the Indian constitution was severely affected. She approached the police in December 2019. Her statement was recorded at Bandra police station but they refused to lodge an FIR against Kundra and his team, and hence she had to move to Bombay High Court. She filed a writ petition against Raj Kundra, Saurabh Kushwah and her former manager SonuLakhwani.
On Tuesday Kundra was yet again summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning over his alleged role in a Bitcoin scam based on a case filed against GainBitcoin, Amit Bhardwaj and eight others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The founder of GainBitcon, Amit Bhardwaj, had been arrested in April for allegedly duping more than 8,000 people of Rs 2,000 crore, he was accused of running a scam through Ponzi schemes on the website GainBitcoin.
Amit, the mastermind, also launched his own cryptocurrency flavour called MCAP. Bhardwaj had allegedly set up a multi-level marketing scam by luring investors to give him bitcoins with the promise of higher returns. He never gave the returns and instead fled the country, the police said. Finally, an Enforcement Directorate lookout notice found him first in Dubai and then in Thailand. The investigation authorities recovered 32 bitcoins, nearly 80 Ethers, and Rs 38.96 lakh in cash.
On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) Mumbai office accused Kundra of joining an investigation in connection with his alleged business dealings with deceased D-Company gangster Iqbal Mirchi. Ranjeet Bindra, director of RKW Developers Private Limited and close associate of Kundra was allegedly working on the orders of Iqbal Mirchi and played an important role in negotiating the property deals for Mirchi along with another close aide of the gangster, Humayun Merchant.
Kundra was also questioned in connection to his dealing with a real estate agent RanjeetBindra who was arrested in a money laundering case involving the drug lord.
The list continues as not long ago Kundra was also involved in IPL betting and spot-fixing controversy. For the aforementioned, Kundra was banned for life from cricket activities. He along with ICC chief N Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was involved in betting.
During the investigation, Rajasthan Royal owner Raj Kundra did confess about betting through a bookie, but he denied the accusation of match fixing.
For Kundra, the chain of events never seem to end. Kundra has always been in the spotlight for living a very controversial life. Coming from a very humble background, not many knew how he hit the jackpot and became one of the most successful and rich British Asian Businessmen in the world. He is no stranger to controversies, be it for pornography or IPL betting or bitcoin scam, Kundra has always been in the news for all wrong things.
Reports stated that Kundra will be in police custody till Friday.
