No relief for actor Gehana Vasisth

The Bombay High Court, on Tuesday, rejected the anticipatory bail plea of actor and director Gehana Vasisth in the third FIR filed against her pertaining to the porn film racket case. The police had lodged a case against her on a complaint that Vasisth also directed porn films and that she threatened, coerced and lured women with money to act in “obscene videos”.

Earlier, additional public prosecutor (APP) Prajakta Shinde had informed the HC that they had planned to add an additional charge of section 370 (whoever receives or detains a person against his/her will or any person as a slave) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Vasisth. An application has been filed in the lower court for the same. Justice Sandeep

Shinde had questioned why the section was not invoked. He had also sought an explanation as to why her custody was not required. Following this, the prosecution had made an application before the lower court to invoke the section against Vasisth.

Vasisth’s advocate Abhishek Yende argued the section couldn’t be invoked since there was a video recording of the woman not objecting to shooting the video. Besides, an agreement was signed by the parties and there were WhatsApp chats between Vasisth and the complainant, who had even promoted the web series. Yende even argued that the conduct of the woman should also be seen and fact noted that she had done bold content even earlier.

Vasisth has been booked under sections 354C (outraging modesty of woman), 292 and 293 (sale of obscene material) of the IPC, sections 66E, 67 and 67A (transmission of sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act and provisions of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.