Sc grants bail to Vikram Bhatt, urges mediation

NEw DelhiThe sublime margaret court on th granted bond to Bollywood filmmaker Vikram Bhatt in a multi crore cheating caseful and asked him to explore mediation to settle the dispute with the founder of Indira IVF and Fertility Centre who accused him of misappropriating over ₹30 crore paid to him under a contract for making four movies.The top court last week granted bail to Bhatt’s wife, Shwetambari, and a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Thursday extended the benefit to the filmmaker as well. The bench said that bail has been granted to facilitate “amicable resolution” of the dispute and referred the two sides to appear before the Supreme Court Mediation Centre for exploring out-of-court resolution of the case.Bhatt approached the court against the January 5 order passed by the Jodhpur bench of the Rajasthan high court refusing bail to him and his wife.The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said, “We set aside the high court order and without expressing any opinion on merits, direct the appellant to be released on bail. Regular bail is granted on the expectation that the appellants will act bonafide and make efforts for amicable resolution of dispute.”Bhatt’s lawyer senior advocate Siddharth Dave informed the court that pursuant to court’s February 13 order granting interim bail to filmmaker’s wife, the matter was raised in the Rajasthan state assembly questioning court’s order granting interim bail.Taking serious exception to these facts, the CJI-led bench warned the accused that he cannot take undue benefit of being an affluent person in the state and cautioned the state over the remarks against the top court. “Nobody should be under the mistaken belief that if he can speak in Assembly, he is exempt.”The court further told the state, “If we have any doubts about your machinery, we will not hesitate in transferring the case out of Rajasthan.”The complainant Ajay Murdia was represented by senior advocate Vikas Singh who submitted that the filmmaker is facing another similar complaint alleging that Bhatt’s company seems to be in some financial difficulty due to which he is accused of borrowing money from other individuals.Dave told the court that the entire contract with the complainant was for production of four movies of which three have been made and one will be completed shortly which is possible only if he is released on bail. Even Singh agreed that interim bail be granted to Bhatt to explore mediation.During the hearing last week, the court had permitted Murdia to be made a party to the proceedings.The case against the Bhatts and others has been registered for offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust. Murdia alleged that funds were taken in the name of a film project but fake bills were prepared by Bhatts under various names for obtaining the money from him. He further alleged that instead of utilising the money for making films, it was allegedly deposited into the accused’s own accounts and used for their personal needs.Besides Vikram and his wife, Bhatt’s manager Mehboob Ansari and one Dinesh Kataria were also arrested by the Rajasthan Police on December 7, 2025.