Mumbai Court remands Raj Kundra to 14-day judicial custody in porn film case

A Mumbai Court on Tuesday remanded businessman and husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra to judicial custody for 2 weeks in relation to a pornographic film racket case.

Kundra has been charged for offences under Sections 292, 293 (sale of obscene material) under the Indian Penal Code, Sections 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) under the Information Technology Act and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

He was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Monday and produced before Metropolitan Magistrate at Esplanade who remanded him to police custody till July 23, 2021,

The Magistrate on Friday extended the police remand till July 27.

The prosecution on Tuesday sought an extension of 7 days but the Magistrate granted judicial custody of 14 days.

The prosecution submitted that they discovered an amount of Rs. 1.13 crores in the Kotak Mahindra bank account belonging to Kundra's company.

They claimed Kundra had allegedly received payment of Rs. 1.64 crores from Apple company and the influx from Google was yet to be received.

The prosecution appealed to the victims to come forward and speak up about the act committed against them. They added that so far they have recorded statements from two victims and they were in the process of summoning more.

Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda, appearing for Kundra, reiterated his arguments that custody was being sought in offences which were majorly bailable except for two non-bailable offences.

He reiterated that if the police had issued summons to Kundra, he would have co-operated.

He submitted that there was nothing new which the prosecution was seeking which required his custody.

After hearing both parties at length, the CMM at Esplanade remanded Kundra to judicial custody.

Kundra has also moved for bail through his advocates, Parinam Law Associates, before the CMM submitting that the chargesheet in the case was filed a long time back.

Kundra's application stated that he has been in custody for a long time and he had been co-operating with the further investigation which is ongoing.

Kundra also assured of continued co-operation if bail is granted.

The CMM is likely to hear the bail application on July 28, 2021.