Businessman Raj Kundra‘s bail plea was on Saturday rejected by the Bombay High Court. The plea challenged his arrest and subsequent remand order against him in a case of alleged production and streaming of pornographic content on apps. The court also rejected the bail plea of Kundra’s associate Ryan Thorpe.

The single bench, presided by Justice AS Gadkari, said that the Kundra and Thorpe’s remand by a magistrate to police custody was within the laws and did not require interference.

In their petitions, Kundra, husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, and Thorpe had termed their arrest as illegal as the mandatory provision of issuing notice under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was not followed.

The duo, in their plea, sought the high court to order for their immediate release and quash two orders passed by a magistrate after their arrest remanding them in police custody.

While Kundra was arrested on July 19, Thorpe, who was employed as the IT head in Kundra’s firm, was arrested on July 20. They are currently in judicial custody.

Kundra had been arrested by the Mumbai crime branch for his alleged involvement in creation and publishing of porn films through some mobile applications. 

Kundra has been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), 292 and 293 (related to obscene and indecent advertisements and displays) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) besides relevant sections of the IT Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.  

Advocate Abhinav Chandrachud, who appeared for Thorpe, also argued that there existed discrepancies in the claims made against Thorpe by the Mumbai Police’s crime branch, while seeking his custody.

Chandrachud had argued that while the 41A notice had been issued to Thorpe, he was not given time to comply or respond to it. “Before Thorpe could act on the notice, he was arrested,” he had said.

Chief public prosecutor Aruna Pai, who appeared for the police, told the high court that several video clips had been recovered from Kundra’s laptop, and there existed enough evidence against him and Thorpe to warrant their arrest and custody.