Being made ‘scapegoat’: Raj Kundra seeks bail in porn case citing ‘no evidence’ against him

PTI, Sep 18, 2021, 3:56 PM IST

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 a single evidence in the supplementary charge sheet of him being actively involved in 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 reported 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, 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 plea, 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 hear the bail plea on Monday.