Porn case: SC notice to Maha govt on Raj Kundra’s appeal against Bombay HC order

PTI, Dec 15, 2021, 3:45 PM IST

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.