Raj Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, on Tuesday walked out of a Mumbai jail, a day after he was granted bail by a magistrate court in a pornographic films case in which he was arrested two months ago. The 46-year-old businessman was released from the Arthur Road jail shortly after 11.30 pm. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate SB Bhajipale on Monday allowed Kundra’s bail application on furnishing a bond of Rs 50,000.
Kundra’s associate and co-accused Ryan Thorpe, who was arrested along with him on July 19, was also granted bail by the court in the case pertaining to the alleged creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. Kundra was arrested by the Mumbai police’s crime branch after being booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
Kundra moved a bail plea before the metropolitan magistrate court on Saturday last, days after the police filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the case. The businessman claimed in the plea that he was being made a “scapegoat” for reasons best known to investigators. There is not a single allegation in the entire supplementary charge-sheet against Kundra, his lawyer Prashant Patil submitted before the court. Meanwhile, the Property Cell of the Crime Branch, which is probing the porn racket, has issued a lookout notice against two absconding accused in the case. The two alleged accused are Yash Thakur and Pradeep Bakshi. Yash Thakur, a resident of Singapore, and London-based Pardeep Bakshi have been shown as wanted accused in the charge-sheet.
The Mumbai police also claimed in the supplementary charge-sheet that Kundra was the “main facilitator” in the pornographic content case and he along with other accused exploited young women struggling in the movie industry by filming them in obscene ways. The nearly 1,500-page charge-sheet against Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe was filed before the magistrate court by the crime branch.
The charge-sheet includes statements of 43 witnesses, including Shilpa Shetty, who has been listed as a witness. The police also included in the charge-sheet a statement by Shilpa Shetty that she was not aware of her husband’s activities as she was busy with her own work.
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