Mumbai: Maharashtra Deputy CM and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis' statement in the Maharashtra legislature on Thursday has brought the focus on alleged international cricket bookie and hawala operator Anil Jaisinghani. Recently the deputy CM's wife Amruta had registered an FIR against Jaisinghani's daughter Aniksha on charges of alleged extortion and blackmail. Over 17 FIRs have been filed against Jaisinghani in five states. The international bookie has cases of extortion, attempt to murder, blackmail and money laundering filed against him.
About Anil Jaisinghani
Ulhasnagar resident Anil Jaisinghani, prime accused in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and T20 cricket matches betting money laundering of over Rs 10,000 crore led by a cartel of top bookies since 2012 had threatened top Enforcement Department (ED) officials with fake cases of extortion.
An international bookie Anil Jaisinghani had fixed several police officers and ED officials in fake cases of extortion and corruption to blackmail them to slow down pursuing investigation into the murky dealing of cricket betting.
ED probing the channeling of cricket betting funds to Dubai and Pakistan via hawala had raided Mumbai based bookie Sukhminder Sodhi. The raids further led to the arrests of prominent bookies Tommy Patel, Kiran Mala, Dharmin Chauhan, Chirag Parikh, Ritesh Bansal, Ankush Bansal, Mukesh Sharma, Ashish Grover and Paresh Bhatia.
Anil used to run bookies cartel & divert funds to Dubai and Pakistan: ED official
“Anil Jaisinghania was running the bookies cartel and diverting funds to Dubai and Pakistan. Several summons and arrests warrants were served at his Ulhasnagar residence but he remained elusive,” alleged an ED official who was involved in the cricket betting probe.
According to senior officials, Anil Jaisinghani conspired with other bookies to fix Ahmedabad ED Joint Director JP Singh and late Enforcement Officer Sanjay Kumar to cripple the investigations into the cricket bookie syndicated linked to Dawood Ibrahim.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was ordered by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into the alleged role of the then ED Director Karnal Singh and CBI Dy SP MCR Mukund for allegedly derailing the investigation into the alleged betting and money laundering activities of Jaisinghani. “The Central Vigilance Commission had directed the CBI in March 2019 to file investigation report within 12 weeks but no such report was filed. The Delhi HC again directed CBI in March 2022 to expedite the enquiry,” said an ED official.
