Mumbai: Chargesheet submitted against bookie, daughter in Amruta Fadnavis blackmail case

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has submitted a chargesheet against bookie Anil Jaisinghani, his designer daughter Anishka Jaisinghani and his cousin Nirmal Jaisinghani in the case concerning blackmail of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis. 

In a press note, the police have said that the chargesheet is 733 pages and important witnesses that form part of the probe document are 13. The police had sought permission from court to be permitted to submit a supplementary chargesheet if further probe brings any material to light.

Charges on the Jaisinghani family

While the daughter and cousin secured bail in end-March, the bookie is still in custody. The trio had been booked under Indian Penal Code Sec 120B (criminal conspiracy), under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) for trying to bribe a public servant and extortion under Sec 385 (extortion by putting in fear of injury). 

Anishka had allegedly threatened to circulate certain video clips, audio clips and whatsapp messages and demanded Rs. 10 crore from Amruta Fadnavis. She was the first to be arrested in the case. Her father and his cousin were arrested later from Gujarat. The police had claimed that the bookie was absconding in several cases at the time. Producing him before a Mumbai court after arresting him from the neighbouring state, the prosecution had told the court that videos, audios and whatsapp messages sent to Amrutha Fadnavis to blackmail her were sent from a phone found on bookie Anil Jaisinghani during his arrest. His bail application had been rejected. While opposing his bail plea, the police had called him the ‘main conspirator”, who had roped in his daughter and cousin into the offence.