Thursday, December 23 2004 23:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A Delhi court today (Dec 23, 2004) reserved its order on the bail plea of IITian Ravi Raj accused of selling a sexually explicit MMS, involving two minor school students, through the Internet.

Additional Sessions Judge Aruna Suresh reserved orders on the bail application after hearing extensive arguments from Ravi Raj's counsel and the prosecution.

The order is likely to be pronounced tomorrow (Dec 24, 2004).

Counsel Naveen Sharma appearing for Ravi Raj claimed that the accused, hailing from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, was a meritorious student of IIT Kharagpur and was being falsely implicated in the case to shield some rich and influential persons.

Stating that two other accused in the case - Baazee.com CEO Avnish Bajaj and the schoolboy, who allegedly created the clip - had already got bail, Sharma said the law should not be unequally applied against his client.

However, the prosecution countered his arguments claiming that police was in the possession of evidence to show that the accused had sold the MMS clip through the Internet.

Ravi Raj was arrested in December 14 and produced before a Delhi court two days later. The court then remanded him to three days police custody.

Seeking his remand, police claimed that besides the MMS clip, the accused had also been selling other pornographic material through the Internet.

He is presently in judicial custody.