The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to Bollywood actor Poonam Pandey in the pornography case in which businessman Raj Kundra was arrested.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.V. Nagarathna issued notice to the Maharashtra government after Pandey filed an appeal against the Bombay High Court order rejecting her anticipatory bail.
No coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner, issue notice, the bench said.
The high court had rejected her anticipatory bail on November 25, 2021.
In her plea, Pandey said her anticipatory bail plea was rejected despite her participation in the investigation conducted by the police and no offence, even prima-facie, made out against her.
She has actively assisted in the investigation and has provided all information as requested by the investigating authorities, however, the High Court has without any basis, rejected the anticipatory bail application, the actor’s plea said.
One Madhukar Keni lodged a complaint on October 31 with Nodal Cyber Police Station against Raj Kundra, Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra and various others punishable under Sections 292 of the IPC, Sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and under Sections 3 and 4 of Indecent Women Representation Act, 1986.
The complainant alleged that websites broadcasting/exhibiting indecent video, audio files having lascivious, lustful, offensive sexual desire messages and videos are openly available through the internet.
The various Over-The-Top (OTT) Platforms viz. Hotshots, Alt Balaji, Kooku, Primeflix, Flizmovies, Banana Prime were named as involved. It has been submitted that OTT Platforms are used for the purpose of illegal financial gains and to get benefits through mobile applications, which have made available the said obscene material to the general public.
Poonam Pandey approached the Supreme Court through AOR Soayib Qureshi claiming that she is the victim in the scenario, not the accused. It was further submitted that the questionable content has already been blocked by the government in 2015.
The accused person includes owners of the aforesaid OTT platforms and actor, Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey and her husband and well-known businessman Raj Kundra, who is alleged to have acted in the obscene video films made on the porn websites and it is also alleged that they have indulged in live indecent chatting and videography through paid OTT platforms.
Further, the petition states that the petitioner has no role to play in either the functioning of the websites or the online platforms. In fact, the petitioner being a victim herself has taken appropriate legal remedies against the persons who are harassing her.