Vikram Bhatt and wife remanded to seven days’ custody in Rs 30 crore fraud case

Bollywood filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife, Shwetambari, have been remanded to seven days’ police custody by a Udaipur court in a fraud case involving over Rs 30 crore. The case stems from allegations that the couple siphoned funds under the guise of film production

Udaipur: Bollywood filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife, Shwetambari, were remanded to seven days’ police custody by a local court in Udaipur on Tuesday in connection with an alleged fraud case exceeding Rs 30 crore.

The couple, arrested from Mumbai on December 7, was brought to Udaipur by a police team late Monday night and produced in the ACJM court on Tuesday afternoon.

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A prosecution lawyer said that the police argued in court that they needed to recover bills, other documents, and electronic devices from Bhatt’s office in Mumbai. Based on this, the court granted police custody for seven days. They are scheduled to be presented in court again on December 16.

A police team led by Deputy SP Chhagan Rajpurohit travelled to Mumbai and arrested the director and his wife on December 7. They were brought to Udaipur on a transit remand.

The arrest followed an FIR lodged on November 17 by Dr Ajay Murdia, who accused Bhatt, his wife, and six others of cheating him of more than Rs 30 crore on the pretext of producing films, including a biopic on his late wife.

Dr Murdia alleged that he first met Dinesh Kataria at an event, where Kataria proposed making a biopic on his wife. On April 24 last year, Kataria called him to Mumbai and introduced him to Vikram Bhatt.

Discussions for the biopic took place, and later Bhatt and his wife allegedly promised that if Murdia financed an initial amount of Rs 7 crore and provided further funding, they could produce four films for Rs 47 crore, assuring him that these projects would yield profits of Rs 100-200 crore.

According to the FIR, the accused siphoned off more than Rs 30 crore by giving false assurances of film production and profits. Police said that the fraud was committed through fake bills generated by the accused.