MUMBAI : The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from arrest to Bollywood actress Poonam Pandey in the porn films racket case, where Raj Kundra, husband of actress Shilpa Shetty is one of the main accused.

A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.V. Nagarathna issued notice to the Maharashtra government on an appeal filed by Pandey challenging a Bombay High Court order, which junked her anticipatory bail plea. "Issue notice.. In the meanwhile, no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner," said the top court in its order.

In November last year, the Bombay High Court declined to grant relief to Pandey. She moved the Supreme Court challenging the high court order. Pandey has been made an accused in the FIR along with actor Sherlyn Chopra.

On December 15, the Supreme Court granted Kundra 4 weeks protection from arrest in one of the cases related to porn film racket.

In November, the Bombay High Court had declined to entertain the anticipatory bail application filed by Kundra in connection with an FIR registered against him by the Mumbai Police in the porn film racket case. Kundra approached the top court after the high court refused relief.

Kundra, first sought anticipatory bail from the session court, which refused to grant him any relief. Thereafter, he moved the Bombay High Court claiming that he was allegedly framed.

The cyber cell of the Mumbai Police filed a case against Kundra under sections of the Indian Penal Code, Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, and Information Technology Act for allegedly distributing sexually explicit videos.

Kundra claimed he was not connected to content creation, publication or transmission of alleged illegal videos. He was arrested by Mumbai Police, in July last year, in another case where he was accused of distributing porn films through an app. In September, Kundra was granted bail.

SOURCE : IANS