Pornography case: Actress Gehana Vashishth, 2 others fail to appear before police

By PTI
MUMBAI: Actress Gehana Vashishth and two other persons, who were summoned by the Mumbai crime branch in connection with a pornography case, failed to appear for questioning on Sunday, a police official said.

The police had recently arrested businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, in connection with a case, which it said, related to the alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps.

After Kundra’s arrest, Vashishth, who worked in three films produced for Kundra’s app, had in a video said erotic content was different from pornography.

Gehana Vashishth and two others were recently summoned by the crime branch’s property cell, but they failed to reach the police office here on Sunday, the official said.

Before the Mumbai crime branch took over the case, there was a complaint with the Maharashtra cyber department about the porn films racket, a senior police official earlier said.

The Malwani police had filed FIRs on the basis of complaints received from two women, while another woman had submitted a complaint at the Lonavla police station, around 120 km from Mumbai, he said.

The Mumbai crime branch had started an investigation into the case after some victims approached the Malwani police station in February 2021, he said.

During the investigation it came to light that some small-time artists were lured by promising to give them a break in some web series or short stories, he had said.

These actors were called for auditions and were asked to give ‘bold’ scenes, which later turned out to be semi-nude or nude scenes, which were against the wishes of the actors, the official had said.

During the investigation, it also came to light that there were many porn-related apps that were operating in the cyber world, he said.

The police then arrested producer Roma Khan, her husband, actress Gehana Vashishth, director Tanveer Hashmi and Umesh Kamath (who used to look after India operations of Kundra’s firm), he had said.

Vashishth was later granted bail.

At least 11 persons have been arrested so far in the case, according to the police.