The Delhi high court on Tuesday granted conditional bail to baazee.com CEO Avnish Bajaj, who was arrested last week in connection with the MMS sex clip involving two schoolchildren.
"The accused is enlarged upon bail with the following conditions: He would submit two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each to the satisfaction of the trail court. He would surrender his passport and join the investigations as and when required and he shall not leave the country without the prior permission of the court," vacation judge Justice Vikramjit Sen said while reading out the operative portion of judgment.
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Bajaj is in judicial custody in Tihar Jail.
Earlier in the day, former minister of law and justice Arun Jaitley argued at length and impressed upon the court that his client was not running away from the investigation.
"My client does not fall under the purview of Section 67 of the IT Act, as he had neither published nor transmitted the said clip..." Jaitley said.
"We pulled off the said sale advertisement on Monday, November 29, soon after the office opened up. No transaction has taken place through us and we have not got any commission out of the sale of the said clips, which were put up by a student of IIT- Kharagpur," Jaitley said.
He said the portal has enough checks and balances in place to ensure that obscene or pornographic material is not hawked through it.
He also argued that even the Delhi police did not want to oppose Bajaj's bail in the trial court.
Mamta Gupta, standing counsel for the government, opposed the bail plea on the ground that the accused was a non-resident Indian and there was reasonable ground that he might flee the country.
She wondered why the defence counsels bypassed the sessions court and came directly to the high court.
She argued that Bajaj was liable for selling obscene material through his web site. "Just look at the advertisement downloaded from the web site, Your Honour. It says the incident that is rocking Delhi currently is available for Rs 125. Baazee.com has helped in hawking child pornography though its pages," she said.