The Supreme Court on Thursday granted regular bail to filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife Shwetambari Bhatt in a multi-crore fraud case related to the controversy over the proposed biopic on the late wife of Indira IVF owner Ajay Murdia.
Supreme Court grants bail to Vikram Bhatt and wife Shwetambari Bhatt, sends both parties for mediation
The couple was arrested by Rajasthan Police in December last year and sent to Jodhpur Central Jail. Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to Shwetambari Bhatt. On Thursday, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi set aside the Rajasthan High Court order denying him bail and granted him regular bail.
The court said that the dispute appears to arise primarily from a commercial transaction and suggested that the parties try to resolve the matter through arbitration. It directed him to appear before the Supreme Court Mediation Center to explore a possible resolution of his payment dispute.
“It seems to us that the dispute essentially relates to a commercial transaction, although the ingredients for committing the offense of fraud etc. are clearly mentioned in the FIR. Be that as it may, it may be appropriate for the parties to resolve the disputes through arbitration. Regular bail is granted with the expectation that the appellants will try and endeavor for an amicable resolution of the dispute,” the bench said in its order.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave appeared for the Bhatt family, while senior advocate Vikas Singh represented Murdia. Singh did not oppose bail for the purpose of mediation but pointed out that another FIR has been registered against Vikram Bhatt in Mumbai. “His company is in trouble and he is asking for money based on his past reputation, people are giving money and he is using that money in his company which is going into liquidation,” Singh said.
Responding to this, Dave said that Bhatt is raising funds to complete his films. He said that under the contract, four films were agreed upon – two were already completed and the third was 70% complete – and if Bhatt remained in custody, he would not be able to complete the project.
The case is based on Murdiya’s complaint that Bhatt had persuaded him to invest over Rs 30 crore in a biopic on his late wife, and promised high returns, but it did not happen.
