News Analysis India

Tag: Porn Case

  • Porn case: SC notice to Maharashtra government on Raj Kundra’s appeal against Bombay HC order

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Maharashtra government on an appeal filed by businessman Raj Kundra against a Bombay High Court order rejecting his anticipatory bail in connection with an FIR registered against him for allegedly distributing pornographic videos.

    In July this year, Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, was arrested by Mumbai Police in another case where he was accused of distributing porn films through an app.

    He was granted bail in September. A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose on Wednesday issued notice to the Maharashtra government and sought its reply within four weeks in connection with the FIR filed by the cyber cell of the Mumbai police.

    Kundra had been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually explicit videos.

    Fearing arrest, Kundra first sought anticipatory bail from the sessions court, but it was refused, so he moved the HC, claiming that he had been framed. The high court also rejected the anticipatory bail application filed by Kundra on November 25. The FIR named actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey as co-accused.

    He was in no way connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos even as the actors, who were named as co-accused, had given full consent to shoot the videos, his lawyers had claimed.

  • Porns film case: Kundra seeks bail citing ‘no evidence’ against him, says he’s being made ‘scapegoat’

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Businessman Raj Kundra, an accused in the pornographic content case, on Saturday moved a bail application in a court here, claiming that he was being made a “scapegoat” and that there was not single evidence in the supplementary charge sheet of him being actively involved in the creation of alleged questionable content.

    The crime branch, probing the case, had recently filed a supplementary charge-sheet against Kundra and three others in the case pertaining to the alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps.

    After that, the accused approached the metropolitan court for bail, saying that the investigation in the case was practically over.

    Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, was arrested July 19 by after being booked under relevant sections of the IPC and the Information Technology Act.

    He is currently in judicial custody. In the bail, filed through advocate Prashant Patil, Kundra claimed that there is not a single iota of evidence till date with the prosecution that would connect the app ‘Hotshots’ with an offence under law.

    As per the probe agency, the Hotshots app was being used by the accused for uploading and streaming obscene content.

    The bail plea also said that there is not a single allegation in the entire supplementary charge sheet against the present applicant (Kundra) that he was actively involved in any of the video shootings.

    In fact, it is a sole discretion of the individual artists to upload their contents on the app, the plea said.

    The contents of the complaint do not disclose any prima-facie offence against Kundra, the application said. It further claimed that Kundra was falsely implicated in the case.

    He was not named in the FIR and he has been dragged by the respondent (police), it added. For the reasons best known to the investigating agencies, he is being made a “scapegoat”, it said.

    The investigation so far clearly shows that Kundra was not involved in any offence even in a remotest way in creating the alleged “questionable content”.

    Further, he is not even related to the process of uploading or broadcasting of the alleged questionable content, the bail plea added. The court will the bail application on Monday.

  • Porn case: Director of one of Raj Kundra’s firms arrested

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: A director of one of Raj Kundra’s companies was arrested in connection with the pornography case against the businessman on Thursday, city police said.

    Abhijeet Bomble, a director of one of Kundra’s firm, was arrested by the Mumbai police’s crime branch, said an official.

    Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, was arrested last month for allegedly producing and distributing porn films through an app.

    A related offense was registered at Malvani police station on the complaint of a 25-year-old model who alleged that she was promised roles in shorts films and web series, but in the name of bold scenes she was forced to perform nude scenes.

    Bomble was named as one of the accused in this case, the police official said.