SC grants anticipatory bail to Raj Kundra, others in pornography case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to businessman Raj Kundra and others, including actors Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey, in connection with an FIR against them for allegedly distributing pornographic videos.

A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna also directed Kundra and the other accused to cooperate in the investigation.

"Having heard the counsel for the parties, we are of the view that the petitioners may be granted anticipatory bail," the bench said.

Senior advocate R Basant, appearing for one of the petitioners, submitted that a chargesheet has already been filed in the case and the accused are cooperating with the police in the investigation.

The top court had earlier granted interim protection from arrest to Kundra in the case.

Kundra had been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually explicit videos.

The FIR named Chopra and Pandey as co-accused.

Kundra's lawyers claimed that he was in no way connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos even as the actors, who were named as co-accused, had given full consent to shoot the videos.