Mumbai: The Mumbai Police have added the charge of extortion against designer Anshika Jaisinghani arrested on Thursday for blackmailing deputy chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis with video clips, audio clips and whatsapp messages.
The police have added the charge under Sec 385 of the Indian Penal Code (extortion by putting in fear of injury). She had been booked under Indian Penal Code Sec 120B (criminal conspiracy) and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) for trying to bribe a public servant - the informant’s husband.
The police produced her before a city sessions court on Friday afternoon and sought her custody for seven days. It told the court that she sent threat messages to the informant angry that she had been blocked. She had morphed photos and further three to four videos were created to further blackmail the informant.
Video clips sent for forensic examination: Mumbai Police
The police further informed the court that it had sent the video clips for forensic examination and the photos and report obtained categorically show how and in what manner there is conspiracy to fix the informant and ultimately the public servant (Fadnavis). It told the court further that she deliberately tried to fix and trap the public servant. “It is not a simple matter, there is a conspiracy,” the prosecutor said.
She threatened to circulate the video clips, audio clips and whatsapp messages and demanded Rs. 10 crore. The prosecutor informed the court that the phone is not yet seized from which she had sent these messages. Among the grounds cited for her custody was that it wants to record her voice sample.
Jaisinghani’s advocate argued that the FIR was registered earlier, but she was not summoned nor given a notice before arrest.
Additional Sessions Judge DD Almale considered the recovery of data from the mobile of Jaisinghani and the material placed on record while granting her custody for investigation till Tuesday.
