New Delhi: Supreme Court granted regular bail on Thursday Bollywood filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife Shwetambari In the case of alleged fraud of Rs 30 crore.
The couple were arrested from their Mumbai residence on December 7, 2025 and brought to Udaipur in Rajasthan after a complaint was filed against them by a Udaipur doctor alleging that the director had defrauded him of crores of rupees on the pretext of making a film.
Noting that the case essentially arose out of a commercial transaction between the parties, a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) set aside the January 31 order of the Rajasthan High Court, which had rejected the couple’s bail plea.
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The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, expressed hope that both the parties would make genuine efforts towards an amicable settlement and directed them to appear before the Supreme Court Mediation Center to find out the resolution of the payment dispute.
“Regular bail has been granted with the expectation that the appellants will make efforts for an amicable resolution of the dispute,” the top court said.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Shwetambari Bhatt and directed that she be immediately released subject to furnishing a surety bond to the satisfaction of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Udaipur.
Issuing notice on a special leave petition (SLP) challenging the Rajasthan High Court’s refusal to grant bail, a bench led by CJI Kant had granted the interim relief.
Earlier, the Rajasthan High Court had refused to grant bail to Vikram Bhatt, his wife and another accused, observing that release at that stage would be inappropriate as the investigation was still ongoing.
On November 17, an FIR was lodged at Bhupalpura police station in Udaipur against Vikram Bhatt and eight others by Dr Ajay Murdia, owner of Indira Group and Indira IVF.
The complainant alleged that the director and his associates collected money on the pretext of producing a biopic based on his wife.
Dr. Murdia claimed that he was first introduced to the project by Dinesh Kataria and later met Vikram Bhatt at Vrindavan Studios in Mumbai. Bhatt reportedly assured him that an investment of Rs 7 crore could make four films with estimated returns of Rs 100–200 crore.
Subsequently, an amount of Rs 2,45,61,400 was transferred several times to the accounts of various persons associated with Bhatt’s team. Additionally, Indira Entertainment reportedly paid Rs 42,70,82,232 – while the total agreed production cost was Rs 47 crore.
According to the complaint, only two films were completed and released. The third film, ‘Vishwa Virat’ is reportedly only 25 percent completed, while the fourth, ‘Maharana-Ran’ has not started yet.
Bhatt is accused of misusing Rs 25 crore received for the fourth film. Apart from Vikram Bhatt and Shwetambari Bhatt, Krishna Bhatt, Dinesh Kataria, Mehboob Ansari, Mudit Buttan, Gangeshwar Lal Srivastava and Ashok Dubey have been made accused in the FIR.