In a relief to Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s businessman-husband Raj Kundra, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted him interim protection from arrest till August 25 in the case registered in 2020 by the Mumbai Police in the porn film racket case.
After hearing both sides in a petition seeking an anticipatory bail in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell for his alleged involvement in porn racket case, Justice Sandeep K Shinde of the high court passed an interim order protecting Kundra from arrest till the next hearing date scheduled for August 25.
After the hearing began in the case, Kundra’s lawyer Prashant Patil argued that the other co-accused in the case were already out on bail and the offences against Kundra attracted a punishment of less than seven years and there he deserved protection from the arrest.
Opposing the anticipatory bail, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde told the high court that Kundra’s role was different from that of the other accused in the case. She sought time to take more instructions on the merits of the application.
Justice Shinde granted time to the Prosecution, while passing an interim order protecting Kundra from arrest till August 25 when his case will be heard again.
Kundra, who was arrested on the night of July 19 in connection with a similar complaint registered by the Crime Branch in 2021, had earlier told the court that there was no evidence to link him against the HotShot App and was being made a ‘scapegoat’.
Kundra, who lives in Mumbai with his wife Shilpa Shetty and two children, has been booked under Sections 292, 293 (sale of obscene material) under the Indian Penal Code, Sections 66E, 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) under the Information Technology Act and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
Kundra had submitted to the court that he had been falsely implicated in the case while the Cyber Cell was making an attempt to connect him with the crime.
Last week, after a lower court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea, he had moved the Bombay high court which has granted him interim relief against arrest for a week.
A day after Kundra was arrested in connection with the alleged racket involving the making of pornographic content, the Mumbai crime branch sleuths had on July 20 named him as a “key conspirator” and Bakshi as co-conspirator involving the creation and publication of pornographic films through some Apps.
