In a setback for businessman and Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, the Bombay High Court rejected his pre-arrest bail on Thursday in an FIR registered by Cyber Crime Cell in connection with broadcasting of nude erotic content on the OTT platform. The FIR was lodged by the Cyber Crime Cell of Mumbai police in November 2020.
Justice Nitin Sambre, however, extended the interim protection from arrest by 4 weeks to enable Kundra to take further legal steps His advocate Prashant Patil said that they would be filing an appeal before the Supreme Court. Kundra is currently out on bail in another similar case lodged by the Property Cell of Mumbai police.
He has been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
Kundra has contended that he was falsely implicated in the case.
His counsel Shirish Gupte argued that there was no evidence to connect Kundra with the Hotshots app with the alleged offences alleged. Besides, none of the artists have raised any grievance as alleged by prosecution.
As far as charges under the IT Act are concerned, Gupte argued that the only allegation against him was regarding the videos of actresses Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey, co-accused in the case.
For this, Kundra had contended that although the videos uploaded may be “erotic” but do not involve any “physical sexual activity or both persons engaged in sexual relations”. Also, he has said that he is in no way connected to the content creation, publication or even transmitting the said videos.
Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde opposed Kundra’s application saying that his role in the case was different from the other accused in the case.
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