Mumbai: Raj Kundra gets protection from arrest

Raj Kundra has been accused of profiting from x-rated contents shared by actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey. File pic/Satej Shinde

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to businessman Raj Kundra and others, who are accused in a pornography case registered in 2020. His lawyers told the court that the Maharashtra cops have already filed the charge sheet and that his client is cooperating in the probe.

The SC also approved the anticipatory bail plea of actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey, co-accused in the case. It asked all the accused to approach the trial court in Mumbai for regular bail. "Mr Kundra shall now initiate all the legal steps necessary in accordance with law to ensure that he gets justice from the court in Mumbai," his legal team said in a statement.

In the charge sheet filed last month, Maharashtra cyber cops claimed that Kundra was one of the directors of Armsprime Media Private Ltd., which developed apps for celebrities and made one for Chopra, named The Sherlyn Chopra, in 2019. Chopra used that app to share obscene videos shot at a five-star hotel and Kundra used to get a share in her profit, it added.

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In 2017-18, Pandey also got an app named The Poonam Pandey and used it to share her naked videos, the charge sheet states. According to the deal, Kundra and other owners of Armsprime - Saurabh Kushwaha and Sanjay Tripathi - also got shares in the profit, it added. However, Kushwaha is not named as an accused in the charge sheet. Among the accused in the case are filmmaker Meeta Jhunjhunwala, cameraman Raju Dubey, Suwajit Chowdhary of Banana Prime OTT and Umesh Kamath, an employee of Kundra.

In the charge sheet, the cops have claimed that Kundra played an active role in the pornography racket, which was run by his brother-in-law from London via an app called Hotshots. Between August 2019 and October 2019, Hotshots received Rs 20,24,776 from Google and Rs 1,16,58,924 from Apple. This was the second case of pornography in which Kundra was chargesheeted.