No case in Bollywood drew more attention than that of film financier and diamond merchant Bharat Shah.

Shah was arrested in January 2001 for alleged links with Karachi-based gangster Chhota Shakeel. The prosecution alleged that Shah financed films as per Shakeel's wishes. It further claimed Shah financed Chori Chori Chupke Chupke because the film's producer was Nazim Rizvi, allegedly a Shakeel associate.

Shah denied the charges. The Supreme Court granted him bail in April 2002 after the lower courts and the Mumbai high court rejected his bail application seven times.

This September, the Special Court in Mumbai convicted Shah and sentenced him to a year in prison. But Shah walked a free man because he had already spent 14 months in custody during the hearing of the case.

Text: Syed Firdaus Ashraf

Complete coverage: The Bharat Shah case