Magistrate's Court At Mumbai Refuses Bail To Businessman Raj Kundra In Porn Film Case

A Metropolitan Magistrate's Court at Mumbai has refused to grant bail to actor Shilpa Shetty's husband - businessman Raj Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe in a case related to the alleged production and distribution of pornographic content. Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai Police's Crime Branch on July 19, 2021 and booked under sections 354(C) (Voyeurism), 292 (sale of obscene content), 420(cheating) of the IPC and Sections 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. Kundra was remanded to 14-days in judicial custody yesterday, following which he sought bail. According to the two remand applications, Kundra's company Arms Prime Media Ltd had developed and sold 'Hotshots App' to another UK based complany called Kenrin Pvt Ltd, which Kundra's relative Pradip Bakshi owns, "to earn money by streaming porn content on social media." The police claimed that Kundra's active role was revealed as employees of his company Viaan Industries maintained the Hotshots App and got remuneration from Kenrin Pvt Ltd. Kundra has also filed a petition in the Bombay High Court under Article 227 of the Constitution to quash all orders passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate, remanding him in custody. He alleged that his arrest is illegal for lack of proper compliance of Section 41A of the CrPC. On Tuesday, the bench led by Justice AS Gadkari refused ad-interim reliefs and directed the State to file its reply and posted the matter for hearing tomorrow. Before the Magistrate Court, Kundra represented by Senior Advocate Abad Ponda argued that the chargesheet is already filed in the case, and all the other accused are out on bail. He claimed that some of the other accused had far graver allegations against them. Moreover, the maximum imprisonment Kundra could face is seven years, he argued. "The accused has a family here, has a home here, there's no question of him being unavailable for investigation. If the offence doesn't attract life imprisonment or the death penalty, bail is a norm," Ponda argued. Ponda submitted that the possibility of tampering with evidence could be true for all the accused on bail. Moreover, he couldn't flee as the police had his passport. Opposing the application, the Investigating officer said a second FIR is registered, and many victims are still coming forward. He submitted that the financial audit is yet to be completed. "Ryan is an IT expert. He can destroy electronic evidence," the officer said. The public prosecutor for the State then argued that the accused are wealthy and influential people, to which Ponda asked, "Is the accused a Terrorist?" Ponda said that till now no complaint or evidence has been produced to show that the accused stopped anyone from approaching the cops or tried tampering.

Magistrate's Court At Mumbai Refuses Bail To Businessman Raj Kundra In Porn Film Case

Sharmeen Hakim

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