A local court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants against Bollywood actresses Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen in connection with the publication of their "obscene" pictures in a Tamil eveninger.

The city judicial magistrate, Elangovan, directed the commissioner of police, Mumbai, to arrest the actresses as early as possible and produce them in court.

Dakshninammorthy, a city based advocate, had filed a case against the actresses, and Murugan, Editor of Tamil Murasu for publication of the "obscene" pictures, thus violating laws including Sec 109 of IPC (Indecent Representation of Women), Prevention of Publication of Obscene Pictures Act and Sec 3 of the Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act.

The advocate contended the pictures "polluted the minds of young people" and demanded action against them.

The actresses should have appeared in court on June 2, as per the non-bailable warrant issued by the court on March 10. They were then asked to appear today with a warning that arrest warrants would be issued against them.

The actresses through their lawyers contended that they were not in a position to come to the court as they were busy shooting for a film. They also claimed that they were not aware of the pictures published in the eveninger without their permission.

However, reacting to reports about Shilpa Shetty being served legal summons and a non-bailable warrant in the 'obscenity case' filed against her by an advocate in Madurai, the actress' publicist and spokesperson Dale Bhagwagar, has reaffirmed that though a case has been filed, Shilpa has not received any summons.

"Shilpa has been in and out of the country. When in Mumbai, she is busy shooting for Anil Sharma's 'Apne'. It seems the advocate in Madurai is having a gala time using her name in the media to milk publicity for himself in his hometown," says Bhagwagar.

"It's a frivolous case and is targeted at hassling her. Shilpa's legal team is working on it," he adds.

Moreover, it can be noted here that Shilpa has not posed for the photograph in question, which is a freeze-frame shot from her recent superhit Kannada film 'Auto Shankar' which co-starred southern-hearthrob Upendra.

The photo was used by the makers from the 'censored' version of the movie (which has been approved for universal viewing), for promotion purposes on publicity hoardings.

From here, it was lifted and published by a Tamil eveninger called 'Tamil Murasu', referring to which, the case has been filed by an advocate in Madurai.