Mumbai: In a significant development, the Bombay High Court today (Mar 23, 2004) stayed the conviction of film financier Bharat Shah in a case of alleged nexus of Bollywood with underworld.

Shah's conviction was stayed by Justice D G Deshpande who heard arguments at length on an appeal filed by the film financier.

Shah had filed an appeal against his conviction by a Special Court. The appeal was admitted by the High Court on November 11 last year. It will now come up for final hearing in due course.

The trial court had on October one last year, sentenced Shah to one year RI (Rigorous Imprisonment) for hiding information from police about links of producer Nasim Rizvi with the underworld but set him free as he had already served over 14 months in jail during the trial.

Shah was convicted under section 118 of IPC (Indian Penal Code), which deals with hiding designs to facilitate extortion, but under MCOCA he was acquitted as the court did not find any evidence of his links with the underworld.

He was, however, asked to pay Rs five lakh fees to the court receiver which the court said would tantamount to payment of fine.

Shah challenged his conviction saying it was a stigma on his life and career and therefore he was challenging the trial court's verdict.

Shah's lawyers V R Manohar and Vibhav Krishna argued that he was a director of more than 20 companies and that he could not continue on their board unless the conviction was set aside.