The Bombay High Court on Saturday rejected petitions by businessman Raj Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe seeking to be released from judicial custody in a case related to adult films, Live Law reported.
Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, had been arrested on July 19 and sent to police custody for three days. On July 23, a metropolitan magistrate extended his custody till July 27. After his police custody expired, the court sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
The businessman challenged his custody on the grounds that before his arrest, he had not been issued summons in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code, NDTV reported.
But the Bombay High Court rejected his argument. “The remand to custody by the metropolitan magistrate is within conformity of law and does not require any interference,” Justice AS Gadkari said, according to Bar and Bench.
Kundra is accused of being the key conspirator in the case. He is accused of being the owner of a mobile application that streamed and distributed allegedly sexually explicit content. Kundra had sold the app to his relative, Pradeep Bakshi, who lives in the United Kingdom.
The Mumbai Police also alleged that Kundra’s company coerced some women into shooting nude pictures and videos by promising to get them opportunities to act in films.
The police had booked Kundra under Sections 354(C) (voyeurism), 292 (sale of obscene content) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. The first information report filed by the police also invoked sections of the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, which deal with the transmission of sexually explicit material.
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