A sessions court cited model and actor Poonam Pandey’s conduct of not cooperating in the probe in an obscenity case against her while rejecting her plea for anticipatory bail in the case.
The court on Wednesday denied the 30-year-old the relief. Additional Sessions Judge Purushottam B. Jadhav said in his order that considering the contents of the police’s notice to her and her conduct, her custodial interrogation is necessary for proper investigation.
The case was registered against her by the Nodal Cyber Police Station for obscene content on two porn websites.
Arguing for anticipatory bail, her advocate had pointed out that by a notification issued by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in 2015, 857 websites hosting obscene content had to be disabled by internet service providers.
He said Pandey was a victim as the intermediaries had not blocked those websites. He also cited the interim anticipatory bail granted to co-accused Sherlyn Chopra by the Bombay HC and said Pandey too deserved the relief.
The court noted that Pandey had not responded to the notice of the police and had not explained the reason for not doing so. Therefore, it is clear, it said, that she has not cooperated with the investigating officer.
“In the said notice the investigating officer has called for information whether any form of consent has been taken from the applicant about making of videos and if yes, she should provide the name of casting director, producer and other involved persons,” the court said.
It added that she was also called upon to submit if consent had been taken while uploading the videos and if yes, the name of the uploader and other relevant documents. “It is not the case of the applicant that she had submitted the information,” the court said.
Differentiating the case from that of Sherlyn Chopra, the court said that Chopra had responded to the notices by sending emails to the investigating officer, a fact considered by the HC while granting her the interim relief.
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