[Porn racket case] Gehana Vashist approaches Mumbai Court for anticipatory bail

Actress Gehana Vashist has moved a Mumbai court for anticipatory bail in the porn film racket case which also involves businessman Raj Kundra as accused (Gehana Vashist v. State of Maharashtra). .Additional Sessions Judge Sonali Agarwal, however, refused to grant Vashist interim protection from arrest on Tuesday..A first information report (FIR) was registered against accused for allegedly committing offences under Sections 292, 293 (sale of obscene material) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 66E, 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act..The FIR in which Vashist has been charged is the third FIR in the case. There are two other FIRs - one registered in 2020 by the Cyber Cell Unit of Mumbai Police and another registered in 2021 by the Crime Branch in which Kundra is an accused. .Vashist was arrested in February 2021 and released on bail after few months in the FIR in which Kundra was arrested and is presently in judicial custody. .Advocate Sunil Kumar appearing for Vashist informed the Court that the FIR was purportedly registered by the Mumbai Police after Vashist refused to appear before the police in response to their summons. The police claimed they had summoned her as a witness in order to confront details pertaining to Kundra who was administrator of the Hotshot App which carried all obscene content. Vashist supposedly worked in three films produced for the app.Kumar submitted that the police was required to clarify whether they were calling her as a witness or as an accused as there was an apprehension that the moment Vashist appears before the police, they will arrest her. .Kumar informed the Court that Vashist's custody was not required as she had already been arrested in the earlier FIR, and granted bail. He submitted that the police had all the evidence they wanted to collect from Vashist - which included her phone and laptop..Kumar also raised grievance against the manner in which the police were filing FIRs against statements of each victim in the case. "If 100 victims come forward, then will there be 100 FIRs? New victims can make a statement in the previous FIR and investigation can continue," he argued. .After briefly hearing the parties, the Court observed that there was more than one FIR against Vashist and the allegations were of serious nature. "The allegations in the present FIR are of serious nature that accused compelled other victim to do kiss scenes and sex scenes. Considering such allegations and circumstances, I do not find this is a fit case to grant interim relief" the order stated. The Court, therefore, refused interim relief.