Raj Kundra, businessman and actor Shilpa Shetty‘s husband, has been granted four-week protection from arrest by the Supreme Court in connection to the 2020 porn film case, NDTV reported.
The apex court also issued a notice to the Maharashtra government regarding the same.
On the basis of a complaint from Madhukar Keni, a 67-year-old retired Customs and Central Excise officer, a First Information Report was lodged in this obscenity case was registered in October 2020 by the Cyber Cell in connection with the broadcasting of nude erotic content on an OTT platform.
The FIR was registered under section 292 (sale of obscene material) of the Indian Penal Code, and sections 67 and 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the IT Act, and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
On November 6, 2020, over 20 people were booked by the Nodal Cyber Police, Mumbai.
Earlier, in August, the Bombay High Court had granted Kundra protection from arrest in this case and later, this was extended till September 20 when he was in jail in a similar pornography case, which has been under investigation since February 2021.
On September 20, Kundra was granted bail in the 2021 pornography case.
Recently, on November 25, Kundra along with five others were denied pre-arrest bail in the 2020 obscenity case by the Bombay High Court.
In his application for pre-arrest bail in the 2020 case, Kundra said his name was not reflected in the FIR filed last year and he had cooperated with investigators. He also added that the Hotshot app had nothing to do with pornography and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case.
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He further explained that he was approached to invest in a venture named Armsprime Media Pvt Ltd, which was to work on a subscription model and was allegedly engaged in providing a digital platform to artists to showcase their talents and interact with clients. He claimed that he was associated with the company only between February to December 2020, during which time he had never taken an active part in its contract building or content creation.
The other five accused are actors Poonam Panday and Sherlyn Chopra, Suvojit Chaudhari, Sam Ahmed, and Kundra’s associate Umesh Kamat.
However, the Bombay High Court while rejecting their pre-arrest bail plea, had granted all the accused four weeks to approach the Supreme Court.