Gehana Vasisth’s Anticipatory Bail Plea Adjourned To Thursday Aug 12 For Orders

Mumbai: A Mumbai Sessions court adjourned the anticipatory bail plea of actor Gehana Vasisth to next Thursday (August 12 for orders).

The court heard the arguments of Assistant Public Prosecutor Meera Choudhary- Bhosale and then adjourned the matter for 12 August.

An officer from the Property Cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch was also present in the court at the time of hearing.

Three more persons Ajay Shrimant, Abhijit Harishchandra and Prince Kashyap – all producers for Raj Kundra’s HotShots App have been named as accused in the fourth FIR which was recently registered at the Malwani Police Station and transferred to the Crime Branch Property Cell for investigation.

Gehana who spent 5 months in jail in the earlier two similar cases had applied for anticipatory bail in this case.

On the earlier date of hearing the court on Tuesday denied any interim protection from arrest to Vasisth in the pornography case, in which businessman Raj Kundra is one of the accused, observing that allegations against her are of serious nature.

Fearing arrest, the actress has filed the anticipatory bail application before additional sessions judge Sonali Agarwal. The court had posted the matter for hearing on August 6 (today).

“The allegations in the present FIR are of a serious nature that the accused compelled another 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 court said.

The Mumbai Crime Branch had first registered a case in February 2021 after a raid at Madh Island, in connection with the production of adult films and circulating them through mobile applications to paid subscribers.

Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe were arrested last month. They are currently in judicial custody. The court had recently rejected the anticipatory bail plea of model Sherlyn Chopra, another accused in the case.

Meanwhilie, a plea by businessman Raj Kundra seeking his immediate release from judicial custody in a porn film case was today refused by the Bombay High Court.

Arrested last month, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband had challenged a remand order issued against him by a magistrate’s court saying he had not been notified or issued summons before arrest as was required under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The High Court’s order today said there was nothing wrong with the magistrate court’s order when it remanded Mr Kundra to police custody on July 20. Rejecting his plea, Justice AS Gadkari said his remand and subsequent judicial custody were within the conformity of law and did not require interference.

Earlier, the police had said that a notice was issued prior to his arrest but Mr Kundra had refused to accept it. The police argued that the refusal “implies the petitioner refused to co-operate”.

The businessman, along with an associate and employee Ryan Thorpe, was arrested on July 19 for involvement in the production of pornography. He, however, has argued that the content in question was not pornography and that similar material was available on OTT platforms.