The Supreme Court made it clear on Monday that the provision of anticipatory or pre-arrest bail under Section 438 CrPC is not available to those involved in serious and heinous crimes like murder, rape and fraud.

The significant observation was made by a vacation bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and D K Jain while dismissing the petition of one R Krishnamurthy and others facing allegations of cheating thousands of people to the tune of Rs 9 crore.

The court, however, directed the petitioners to approach the trial court for seeking regular bail and the trial court concerned would consider the same on merit.