Porn video case: Supreme Court grants protection from arrest to Poonam Pandey

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from arrest to Bollywood actress Poonam Pandey in a porn film racket case in which actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra is one of the main accused. A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BV Nagarathna issued notice to the Maharashtra government on Pandey’s appeal challenging the Bombay High Court order which had rejected his anticipatory bail plea. In its order, the top court said, “Notice issued.. In the meantime, no coercive action will be taken against the petitioner.”

In November last year, the Bombay High Court had refused to grant relief to Pandey. He moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order. Pandey has been made an accused along with actor Sherlyn Chopra in the FIR.

On December 15, the Supreme Court had granted four weeks protection to Kundra from arrest in a case related to a porn film racket.

In November, the Bombay High Court had refused to entertain an anticipatory bail plea filed by Kundra in connection with an FIR lodged against him by the Mumbai Police in the porn film racket case. Kundra approached the apex court after the High Court refused the relief.

Kundra first sought anticipatory bail from the sessions court, which refused to grant him any relief. Thereafter, he moved the Bombay High Court and claimed that he was allegedly implicated.

The Cyber ​​Cell of Mumbai Police registered a case against Kundra under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing explicit sexual videos.

Kundra claimed that he was not associated with the making, publishing or broadcasting of the alleged illegal videos. He was arrested by Mumbai Police in July last year in another case where he was accused of distributing porn movies through an app. Kundra was granted bail in September.