On Tuesday, Raj Kundra was released from Byculla jail on bail in a pornography case. The businessman and husband of Shilpa Shetty was arrested on July 19 after the Mumbai Crime Branch found out that he was the key conspirator in the entire racket. Raj and his associate and co-accused Ryan Thorpe were granted bail by the court on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each.
Granting bail to Raj and Ryan, the court observed that the element of inducement, considered to be the prime ingredient in cheating offences, appeared to be missing from the case presented by the prosecution. In the bail order, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S B Bhajipale, mentioned that all servers, laptops and mobile phones of the accused people and their companies were already in the custody of the police and the possibility of tampering with evidence was minimal.
The magistrate court told that the co-accused in the pornography case are out on bail and Raj can't be kept behind bars till the conclusion of the trial. In the order, the court said, "If the statements of the witnesses are perused then the element of inducement, which is the prime ingredient of cheating, appears to be missing from the case of the prosecution." The court further noted that the offences under which Kundra has been booked are not punishable for more than seven years.
The court added, “It is better to mention here that the trial will take its own time and, in such circumstances, it will not be proper to keep the accused in custody, when they are ready to furnish surety for their appearance and to abide by the conditions imposed by the court."
(Source: Mid-Day)
