Fifteen months after big-time film financier and diamond trader Bharat Shah was incarcerated due to his alleged connections to the underworld, the Supreme Court garanted him bail yesterday. 

Shah was arrested on 8 January 2001 for his alleged links with underworld mafia don Chhota Shakeel under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The Supreme Court directed Shah to furnish a bail bond of Rs 100,000 and two sureties of like amount and directed him to surrender his mobile phone to investigating agencies. Shah's passport, which was surrendered to the trial court, will not be released without the court's permission. 

The Supreme Court has ordered an expeditious trial in the case.

At that time of his arrest, the Mumbai police exposed his alleged connections with Pakistan-based gangster Chhota Shakeel in the making of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke.

Shah's links to B4U Multimedia, in which he had a 92 per cent stake, forced B4U to transfer all its assets and functions to another group company B4U Television Networks on 1 April 2001.

Shah holds no equity in B4U Television networks. B4U Multimedia was in fact another name for Shah's own company VIP enterprises and had been promoted to further the B4U's plans to come out with an IPO.