The Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail on Tuesday to businessman Raj Kundra and actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey in connection with the porn films racket case registered by Nodal Cyber Police Station of Bandra against them.
The order was passed by the Bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagarathna, after taking into consideration the fact that Maharashtra government did not oppose the anticipatory bail application by Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty.
The Apex Court granted anticipatory bail to the three accused, while directing the Trial Court to impose conditions on them, including that whenever their presence was required, they were directed to cooperate.
The Counsel appearing for the petitioner argued that the charge sheet had already been filed in the main case. He said the petitioner had already been released on regular bail in that case after 60 days of being in prison.
The Counsel of the petitioner also drew attention of the Apex Court to the fact that several FIR’s have been filed by different people on the same movie.
The Counsel appearing for the State of Maharashtra, while not opposing the application for anticipatory bail, submitted that it only expected the accused to cooperate in the investigation. Whenever called, the accused were required to come to the police station, it added.
The Counsel for the petitioners submitted that there has not been a single complaint regarding them not co-operating in the probe.
Ragrading the case, Kundra’s Counsel said that two Sections 67 & 67-A of IT Act have been pressed against him.
He said there was allegation that two ladies on an OTT platform had given videos which were obscene. Section 67 is bailable. Section 67-A will be attracted only if it is a ‘sexually explicit act’.
He added that there was no such case as there was no sexually explicit act. Merely because an allegation has been made does not mean that there would be a sexually explicit act, he added.