NEW DELHI: Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra on Tuesday breathed a sigh of relief as SC granted anticipatory bail to him and four others in a 2020 porn videos case registered by Nodal Cyber Police Station, Bandra.
The other four accused who have been granted anticipatory bail are Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra, Umesh Ganpat Kamat and Suvojit Chowdhury.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna asked the lower court to impose conditions and directed the accused to cooperate in the investigation.
“We are of the view that they should be granted anticipatory bail subject to the conditions imposed by the trial court. They should fully cooperate. The court will also incorporate this as a condition for anticipatory bail,” the bench said in its order.
Top Court’s order came in a plea filed by the accused against Bombay HCs November 25, 2021 ruling of rejecting to grant them pre-arrest bail in an FIR registered under section 292 of the IPC, under Sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and under Sections 3 and 4 of Indecent Women Representation Act, 1986 for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually explicit videos. The FIR was filed based on a complaint alleging that websites broadcasting/exhibiting indecent video, audio files having lascivious, lustful, offensive sexual desire messages and videos were openly available through internet.
Appearing for one of the accused, Senior Advocate R Basant told the court that chargesheet has already been filed in the case and the accused are cooperating with the police in the investigation.
“We were picked up within 24 hours of registration of FIR,” Advocate Nikhil Goel representing another accused added.
Informing the bench of the chargesheet being filed in the case, Maharashtra government’s counsel urged the court to direct the accused for cooperating in investigation whenever their presence was required. “My only concern is that in case there is requirement for further inquiry, they should cooperate in further investigation,” he said.