Porn film case: SC grants pre-arrest bail to Sherlyn Chopra

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest to actor and model Sherlyn Chopra in a case related to a porn films racket also involving Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra. A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Justice Aniruddha Bose issued notice on the appeal filed by Chopra challenging the November 25, 2021 order of the Bombay High Court which had declined her plea for anticipatory bail. 

The top court said no coercive action shall be taken against Chopra. Earlier, the apex court had granted pre-arrest bail to Kundra and model Poonam Pandey in the same case. Advocate Sunil Fernandes appearing for Chopra contended before the bench that the petitioner is aggrieved by the High court order as it fails to provide proper reasoning for the sole ground for rejection of anticipatory bail i.e. need of custodial interrogation.

Fernandes argued that Chopra was on ad-interim bail for almost nine months and there has not been a single instance where she has tried to abuse the concession of ad-interim bail granted to her earlier. The plea said that the only allegation against Chopra herein in the FIR is that she has allegedly acted in obscene video clips which are made available on certain websites. 

“The websites on which the obscene video clips were allegedly found are foreign companies having origins in France and Canada respectively and the Petitioner has no connection/ control/ dominion over them. It is pertinent to note that any unverified user or person can upload any video on such websites without the knowledge of the person shown or made to appear in the video,” the plea read. 

Chopra’s plea stated that she was not involved in the publication or transmission of the content available on the App, neither she was aware about the possible misuse of the content and it was only when the FIR was filed, she came to know about the misuse of her identity, for which she is made liable in the present case. The plea said that she has actively assisted in the investigation and has provided all information as requested by the investigating authorities and there is nothing that is required to be recovered from her. 

“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 Investigating Agency,” plea added.

(ANI)