Raj Kundra, actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband and businessman, will remain in jail until August 20 after the sessions court on Tuesday deferred his bail hearing to that date in the ongoing pornography case, mid-day reported.
Opposing his bail, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch reportedly listed out 19 reasons to extend his custody, including the possibility that he could tamper with the evidence, influence witnesses, and even flee the country as he is a British citizen.
Kundra was arrested on July 19 in a case involving pornography. He has remained in custody since.
He has been accused of making pornographic videos under the pretext of producing short films for OTT platforms. According to the Crime Branch, the pornographic content thus filmed was sent to a UK production company named Kenrin, registered by Kundra’s brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi, and then uploaded on various apps using foreign IP addresses to evade Indian law.
Earlier, Kundra’s bail plea was rejected twice on July 23 and July 27 by the magistrate court and he was remanded to custody both times.
On August 7, the Bombay High Court had also rejected Kundra’s plea challenging his arrest and the subsequent orders in the ongoing pornography case.
So far, 11 people, including Kundra, have been arrested in connection to the case. The accused have been booked under IPC Sections 354(C) (Voyeurism), 292 (Sale of obscene content), and 420 (Cheating) and Sections 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
According to a report in The Indian Express, a chargesheet will be filed against Kundra, his associate Ryan Thorpe and the other co-accused in the case depending on when he gets bail. In case Kundra does not get bail, a chargesheet will have to be filed within 60 days of his arrest, a police officer said. However, if he gets bail, there are no time constraints on filing the chargesheet.
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Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Police has served notice to Shetty and her mother on Thursday in relation to two FIRs filed against the duo in an alleged fraud case. A couple has registered complaints at Hazratganj and Vibhutikhand police stations in Lucknow alleging the duo took crores of rupees from them in the name of opening a branch of a wellness centre. The complainants allege that Shetty is the owner of the wellness centre while her mother is its director.
However, the founder and chairperson of IOSIS Wellness shared on Instagram on Tuesday that Shetty and her mother have no connection with IOSIS and that they amicably parted ways long ago.