Sherlyn Chopra Granted Protection From Arrest In Porn Films Racket Case

Sherlyn Chopra was granted protection from arrest in porn films racket case today. The actor and model Chopra was involved in the case along with Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra. The interim protection from arrest was granted to her by the Supreme Court of India after her plea was rejected by the Bombay High Court.

The bench consisted of Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose. They issued a notice on the actor's appeal, which challenged the Bombay High Court's order on November 25 last year. The High Court had denied her plea for anticipatory bail. However, the Supreme Court has said that no coercive action will be taken against Chopra.

Sherlyn Chopra Granted Protection From Arrest

The others involved in the same case Kundra and Poonam Pandey were granted pre-arrest bail by the apex court. The advocate appearing for Chopra, Sunil Fernandes, argued that the HC had not provided "proper reasoning" for the rejection of the appeal. Fernandes also said that Chopra has been under ad-interim bail for nine months and not once has she tried to abuse the ad-interim bail granted to her. This kind of bail is given for a limited time, generally before the hearing for the grant of normal bail.

Suggested Reading: Why Sexist Attacks Against Shilpa Shetty In Raj Kundra Porn Case Are Troubling

Talking about the websites and the obscene videos in which Chopra allegedly acted, the advocate said, "The website on which the obscene video clips were allegedly found are foreign companies having origin in France and Canada respectively and the Petitioner has no connection/control/dominion over them. It is pertinent to note that an unverified user or person can upload any video on such websites without the knowledge of the person shown or mad to appear in the video."

Her plea also stated that she was not involved in the publication of the content available in the application and she was not aware of the possible misuse of the content. Her plea reveals that she came to know about its existence only after the First Information Report (FIR) was filed. The plea also stated that she will provide all information as per the authorities request.

"Petitioner has rendered full co-operation during the stage of service of the Notice by the Respondent and is willing to provide un-fettered co-operation to the investigative agency," the plea stated.

Another actor Poonam Pandey was given protection from arrest by the Supreme Court on January 18 this year. Raj Kundra, another accused was also granted protection from arrest in December, the FIR against him stated that he allegedly distributed pornographic videos. Kundra was booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing sexually explicit video.

The case against Chopra was registered after a retired Customs and Central Excise Officer Madhukar Keni lodged a complaint on some of the sites on the Internet which published obscene content. Keni also alleged that if one is to search Chopra's name on Google search, obscene videos show up. Keni downloaded these videos and handed them over to the police as proof of the case.