New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to businessman and Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra and models Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey in a case relating to creating obscene content and showing it on OTT platforms.
A two-judge Bench headed by Justice K M Joseph and also comprising Justice B V Nagarathna passed the order and granted anticipatory bail to the three.
"The accused persons be granted anticipatory bail. They should cooperate with the police and the probe agency as and when need arise," the Bench said.
The court granted the accused persons the anticipatory bail after it took into all the records submitted by the Maharashtra state lawyer who told the apex court that the chargesheet had already been filed against the accused.
It asked all the accused to approach the concerned Mumbai trial court for regular bail. The Maharashtra Police did not oppose the anticipatory bail pleas.
"These are cases where the petitioners should be allowed anticipatory bail subject to conditions imposed by the trial court. In case they are required in the future case, they should fully cooperate. The trial court should necessarily incorporate this as a condition,” the apex court stated.
The Supreme Court initially questioned whether bail can be granted in a case like this. "What message will it send to society," asked the court. "We will protect you till you can go to the court for regular bail."
Raj Kundra, Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra and Umesh Kamat sought direction to quash the obcenity proceedings against them.
The Maharashtra cyber police has filed a chargesheet for making pornographic content and circulating it on OTT platforms for financial consideration.
They have been charged with shooting obscene videos in two suburban five-star hotels.
Kundra was accused of producing and distributing pornographic films using a subscriber-driven mobile app called 'Hotshots'.
Kundra had claimed that there was no evidence of him being actively involved in the creation of the allegedly content and he was being falsely implicated.
A Madhukar Keni had lodged a complaint on October 31 with the Nodal Cyber Police Station against Kundra, Poonam and Sherlyn and certain other accused persons.
The complainant alleged that these accused persons are allegedly involved in broadcasting/exhibiting indecent videos, audio files having lascivious, lustful, offensive sexual desire messages and videos are openly available through the internet.
Poonam Pandey had approached the Supreme Court through Advocate-on-Record (AOR) Soayib Qureshi, claiming she is a victim in the scenario, not an accused. It was submitted that the questionable content has already been blocked by the government in 2015.
Further, she stated that the petitioner has no role to play in either the functioning of the websites or the online platforms. In fact, the petitioner being a victim herself has taken appropriate legal remedies against the persons who are harassing her. (UNI)