The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to
businessman Raj Kundra and others, including actors Sherlyn Chopra
and Poonam Pandey, in connection with an FIR against them for allegedly
distributing pornographic videos.
A bench of Justices K M Joseph and B V Nagarathna also
directed Kundra and the other accused to cooperate in the investigation.
"Having heard the counsel for the parties, we are
of the view that the petitioners may be granted anticipatory bail," the
bench said.
Senior advocate R Basant, appearing for one of the
petitioners, submitted that a chargesheet has already been filed in the case
and the accused are cooperating with the police in the investigation.
The top court had earlier granted interim protection
from arrest to Kundra in the case.
Kundra had been booked under relevant sections of the
Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act and
Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing/ transmitting sexually
explicit videos.
The FIR named Chopra and Pandey as co-accused.
Kundra's lawyers claimed that he was in no way
connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal
videos even as the actors, who were named as co-accused, had given full consent
to shoot the videos.