Raj Kundra Remanded To Police Custody In Pornographic Film Case

BACKGROUND

• The Court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Mumbai remanded businessman Raj Kundra and one of his associates, Ryan Tharp, to police custody till 23 July, in connection to the alleged production and distribution of porn videos.
• He is booked under Sections 354(C), 292 (sale of obscene content), 420(cheating) of the IPC and Sections 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the IT Act, 2000 and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

STATEMENTS OF INVESTIGATING AGENCY

• The police claimed that Raj Kundra had developed an application called ‘Hotshot’ that created pornographic content and later it was sold to UK-based person Pradeep Bakshi who is alleged to be his relative.
• The crime investigating agency informed the Court that the accused was the key conspirator in production and distribution of pornographic films and it has also found various foreign transactions of his company with the company uploading the pornographic content.
• The police informed that the accused used to lure struggling models and actresses and also had a WhatsApp group to monitor the revenue of the application.

SUBMISSIONS ON BEHALF OF RAJ KUNDRA

• Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda, presenting on behalf of Kundra, informed the Court that he was not given the notice to join the investigation under Section 41 of CrPC.
• He also submitted that Section 67 of the IT act talks about explicit sexual acts and only the actual act of intercourse can be treated as pornography and the rest was just vulgar content.

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