The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from arrest to Bollywood actress Poonam Pandey in the porn films racket case, where Raj Kundra, husband of actress Shilpa Shetty is one of the main accused. A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.V. Nagarathna issued notice to the Maharashtra government on an appeal filed by Pandey challenging a Bombay High Court order, which junked her anticipatory bail plea. “Issue notice.. In the meanwhile, no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner,” said the top court in its order.
In November last year, the Bombay High Court declined to grant relief to Pandey. She moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order. Pandey has been made an accused in the FIR along with actor Sherlyn Chopra.
On December 15, the Supreme Court granted Kundra 4 weeks of protection from arrest in one of the cases related to a porn film racket.
In November, the Bombay High Court had declined to entertain the anticipatory bail application filed by Kundra in connection with an FIR registered against him by the Mumbai Police in the porn film racket case. Kundra approached the top court after the high court refused relief.
Kundra, first sought anticipatory bail from the session court, which refused to grant him any relief. Thereafter, he moved the Bombay High Court claiming that he was allegedly framed.
Last July, the cyber cell of the Mumbai Police had filed a case against Raj Kundra under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing sexually explicit videos. He was arrested in July and granted bail in September.
Recently, Raj, in an official statement, denied all involvement in the pornography case and called it a witch hunt.
“Unfortunately I have already been pronounced “guilty” by the media and my family and I have been subjected to a lot of pain (continuously), violating my human and constitutional rights at different levels. The trolling /negativity and toxic public perception has been very debilitating. To set the record straight I do not hide my face in shame, but wish that my privacy is not intruded anymore with this continued media trail. My priority has always been my family, nothing else matters at this juncture, I believe it’s every persons inalienable right to live with dignity and I request the same. Thank you for taking out time to read this statement, and respecting my privacy henceforth,” Raj claimed in his statement.
(With IANS inputs)
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