Porn Racket Case: Why Section 370 Not Invoked Against Gehana Vasisth, Bombay HC Asks Police

The Bombay High Court has asked the Mumbai Police to explain why Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has not been slapped against actor-director Gehana Vasisth in the porn racket case.

While Mumbai police said they do not want custody of Gehana Vasisth, the high court asked the police why Gehana Vasisth was not charged under Section 370 (whoever receives or detains a person against his/her will or any person as a slave).

The Bombay High Court questioned the Mumbai Police while hearing an application for anticipatory bail filed by Gehana Vasisth.

During the last few hearings, the Mumbai Police had said they needed Gehana Vasisth’s custody to know about the money trail and find out about others in the case. On Tuesday, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde said, “Let her cooperate. Attend the police station. We don’t want to as of now.”

Responding to this, Justice Sandeep Shinde asked, “What do you mean by ‘as of now’?”

Prajakta Shinde explained that the Mumbai Police required some documents from Gehana Vasisth, such as her agreement papers with companies. She also claimed details of various artists had not been handed over by her.

Three FIRs have been registered against Gehana Vasisth for making pornographic content and uploading them on certain OTT platforms.

While two FIRs were registered earlier, the third was filed after Gehana was released on bail in connection with an incident of porn filmmaking in February 2020.

The Bombay High Court noted that this particular film preceded the other two FIRs. Therefore, the court asked if the videos seized by police were shot in the previous year as well.

The bank account seized by police showed transactions being carried out in the 2020 case as well.

Prajakta Shinde said that the details of the videos were not there in the panchanama in other cases, but the videos were there.

As of now, police cannot verify the videos as the gadgets seized from Vasisth were sent to the forensic science laboratory.

Prajakta Shinde also mentioned that the Mumbai Police had also seized account books showing monetary transactions of the OTT platform NewFlix. She pointed out that between February and June — in five months — Vasisth had earned over Rs 7 lakh from NewFlix.

Advocate Abhishek Yende, appearing for Vasisth, said the web series in concern was not sold to NewFlix but to another OTT by the name HotShots which was owned by Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra.

Responding to these allegations, Justice Shinde asked Prajakta Shinde, “What is your investigation? He did not sell it to NewFlix but sold it to HotShots. You have everything in your hand. You have seized everything you can confront him with. Or you want to confuse the court?”

Prajakta Shinde denied this.

The Bombay High Court also asked if the Mumbai Police added Section 370 of the IPC in the case against Gehana Vasisth. Prajakta Shinde said that they were “intending to”.

Justice Shinde said, “In all cases, you slap Section 370 and here you are intending to?”

Yende objected, saying that police “cannot invoke this section as there is a video recording of the woman giving a no objection for shooting the video, an agreement signed by the parties, Whatsapp chats between Vasisth and the complainant who had even promoted the web series. The conduct of the woman has to be seen. She has done bold content earlier as well”.”

Before wrapping up the hearing for the day, Justice Shinde asked Prajakta Shinde: “Why are proper arguments not advanced? The court can’t be a mere spectator to overlook such things. Please explain tomorrow why Section 370 is not invoked in this case.”

In the ongoing crackdown against porn film shooting in Mumbai, police have filed several cases against a few OTT platforms and film-makers.

After the action was initiated by the Mumbai Police, several porn stars came forward to say how they were forced into this business. Businessman Raj Kundra, who was arrested in July, is still behind bars