Gehana Vasisth granted protection from arrest by SC in the porn racket case, actress was accused of luring women

The Supreme Court Wednesday granted protection from arrest to actor Gehana Vasisht accused in a case related to pornographic films and directed her to cooperate in the investigation.

A bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and B R Gavai noted that the main accused in the case is already on bail and issued notice to the Maharashtra government on a plea filed by Vasisht challenging the Bombay High Court order denying pre-arrest bail to her. The apex court noted the submission of the lawyer appearing for Vasisht that this is a third FIR of the same nature and that she had been in custody for 133 days in pursuance to the first two FIRs before being granted bail.

"Issue notice. In the meantime, the petitioner be not arrested but shall cooperate with the investigation," the bench said.

Vasisht is accused of threatening, coercing and luring women with money to act in pornographic films. She has been booked under Sections 354-C (outraging modesty of woman), 292 and 293 (sale of obscene material) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Sections 66E, 67, 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act, and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

The Mumbai police had registered three FIRs in the porn films racket case against several persons. Businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, is an accused in one of the FIRs and was granted bail on Monday. He was arrested on July 19 this year.

The case against Vasisht is that she had allegedly lured women with the promise of small acting jobs and forced them to act in obscene movies and these movies were then uploaded on the mobile app Hotshots, allegedly owned by Kundra. The police subsequently also filed an application before a lower court to add another charge against Vasisht under section 370 (detaining a person against their will) of the IPC. Vasisht's advocate had earlier argued that the actor's arrest was not required as the police have already recovered evidence from her.