Bollywood actresses Sherlyn Chopra and Poonam Pandey were granted anticipatory bail on Tuesday in an ongoing pornography scandal.
After the arrest of Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, along with his associates last week, both Sherlyn and Poonam posted a video on social media accusing him of being involved in the alleged porn scandal.
The crime branch of the Mumbai Police then summoned Sherlyn and Poonam to make an appearance for questioning today.
On Tuesday, the court, while allowing anticipatory bail to both model-turned-actresses, ordered Mumbai Police to not take any coercive action against them until 20 September.
However, the court also extended the police custody of Kundra for 14 days for further interrogation by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
Earlier, the crime branch conducted a raid at the residence of Shilpa Shetty and Kundra and recovered a server and around 70 porn videos that were apparently shot by Kundra’s former personal assistant Umesh Kamat.
Shilpa was also questioned about her alleged involvement in the case. However, she denied all the allegations and connection with the HotShots app, where porn content was uploaded. She also claimed that her husband was innocent and not involved in the production of porn content.
“She (Shilpa Shetty) said that the movies available on Hotshot are not pornography but erotica. She also said that nowadays, similar content is available on the various OTT platforms and in fact, some are more obscene than what is available on Hotshot,” a police official had reportedly told Indian news agency ANI.
In February 2021, nine people, including artists, casting agents, and cameramen, were arrested for allegedly luring aspiring actors into making pornographic content for the HotShots adult app.
Several actresses such as Poonam Pandey, Sherlyn Chopra, Puneet Kaur, and Sagarika Shona Suman spoke out against Kundra and his associates in connection with the porn racket.
Many aspiring actresses filed a police complaint in February this year alleging that they were forced to film semi-nude and nude scenes on the promise of getting cast in web shows.
Apart from the leaked WhatsApp chats and emails revealing details of alleged pornographic business involving Kundra and his associates, the copy of the contract which actresses used to sign is also doing the rounds on the internet.
Kundra's WhatsApp chats, which were leaked in the public domain, revealed how they had been making millions of rupees every day.
According to a report published on news portal Mid Day, Mumbai’s Crime Branch investigation team has revealed in the charge sheet that Kundra's adult film app and his company 'Bollyfame Media Limited' projected massive revenue growth with a target of INR 340 Million (over $4.5 Million) by 2023. The charge sheet filed by the police stated a gross revenue of INR 1.4 Billion (over $19.6 Million), the report stated.
After Kundra's app Hotshot app was banned, the content was shifted to Bollyfame, the Crime Branch stated.
"WhatsApp chats between Kamat, Kundra and his brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi state that he had a Plan B in the form of Bollyfame in case HotShot faced legal issues. He was also planning to get celebrities to live-stream on Bollyfame, saying it will bring more revenues and subscriptions than Hotshot with its uploaded content,” the officer told the portal.