Raj Kundra, Sherlyn Chopra, Poonam Pandey granted bail in porn videos case
Businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, along with models-actresses Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey, have been granted anticipatory bail on Tuesday by the Supreme Court in the porn videos case. They have been charged for allegedly distributing pornographic videos.
A bench comprising Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna said that they have heard the counsel of the respective parties and they came to a decision that the petitioners can be granted anticipatory bail. Senior advocate R. Basant, representing one of the petitioners, had contended that the a charge sheet has been filed and the accused were cooperating with the police in the investigation.
Earlier, Raj Kundra was given interim protection from arrest from the apex court, where co-accused Poonam and Sherlyn were also named. Kundra had denied the allegations and claimed that he was not connected to the content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos.
As per the Cyber Police's charge-sheet filed before a court previously, Kundra along with Sherlyn, Poonam, a film producer Meeta Jhunjhunwala and a cameraman Raju Dubey were accused of allegedly shooting the obscene or porn videos in two suburban five-star hotels, which were distributed by OTT platforms for monetary gains.
Poonam has also been accused of developing her own mobile App, The Poonam Pandey, getting her obscene videos shot, uploading and circulating them with the help of Kundra's company. According to the Cyber Police, Dubey had also shot Chopra's videos, while Jhunjhunwala is accused of aiding and abetting by scripting and directing stories for her (Chopra).
The Cyber Police has claimed that Kundra's company "aided and abetted the crime" as it derived financial benefits from all the other co-accused though aware that such things are illegal, even as they are on the lookout for some other "missing" models who acted in the porn videos or web series.
With IANS Inputs