The Supreme Court on Thursday granted regular bail to filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife Shwetambari Bhatt in a multi-crore cheating case linked to a dispute over a proposed biopic on the late wife of Ajay Murdia, the owner of Indira IVF.

The couple was arrested by the 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 comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi set aside the Rajasthan High Court’s order denying bail and granted them regular bail.

The court said the dispute appeared to arise mainly from a commercial transaction and suggested that the parties try to resolve the matter through mediation. It directed them to appear before the Supreme Court Mediation Centre to explore a possible settlement of their payment dispute.

“It seems to us that dispute essentially pertains to a commercial transaction, though the ingredients of committing offence of cheating, etc, have been expressly mentioned in the FIR. Be that as it may, it may be appropriate for the parties to resolve the disputes through mediation. The regular bail has been granted with the expectation that the appellants will try and make efforts for the amicable resolution of the dispute,” the bench observed in its order.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave appeared for the Bhatts, 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 difficulty and he is asking money based on his past reputation, people are giving money, and he is using the money into his own company which is going into liquidation,” Singh said.

Responding to this, Dave said Bhatt is raising funds to complete his films. He added that under the contract, four films were agreed upon — two are already completed and the third is 70% complete — and if Bhatt remains in custody, he will not be able to finish the project.

The case is based on Murdia’s complaint that the Bhatts persuaded him to invest over Rs 30 crores in a biopic on his late wife, promising high returns that did not materialise.

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