Mumbai: Maharashtra politics was rocked on Thursday, with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis claiming that a notorious cricket bookie, Anil Jaisinghani, and his fashion-designer daughter, Aniksha, had tried to entrap his wife Amruta in a bribery case. Mumbai Police have arrested Aniksha from her residence at Ulhasnagar, following a complaint filed by Amruta Fadnavis.
Amruta Fadnavis has accused Aniksha of having blackmailed and threatened her. Even though the FIR was lodged at the Malabar Hill police station on February 20, the arrest was effected only on Thursday.
Aniksha
Aniksha had allegedly offered money to Amruta Fadnavis to intervene and get her father off the hook in a criminal case and had later, allegedly begun blackmailing her. Deputy CM Fadnavis is in charge of the home portfolio.
According to information received from police, Amruta Fadnavis had said in her complaint that she met Aniksha in 2021. Aniksha had told Amruta that she was a fashion dress designer and had requested the latter to wear her clothes and jewellery at public events, as this would help promote Aniksha’s creations.
Amruta is an ex-banker, a singer and model, with high visibility on social media. According to Amruta, she had agreed to Aniksha’s suggestion, but later realised that the accused and her father had hatched a conspiracy to threaten and blackmail her by misusing her position. Aniksha had apparently come to the Fadnavis residence several times in the past.
According to a police officer, after winning Amruta’s trust, Aniksha offered her information about some bookies, through whom, she claimed, they could earn money. The officer said that after this, Aniksha directly offered Rs 1 crore to Amrita to get her father released from a police case.
Several cases have already been registered against Anil Jaisinghani for threatening and cheating government officials in Maharashtra, Goa and Assam. Aniksha is a law graduate and a resident of Ulhasnagar.
Malabar Hill Police have registered a case against Aniksha and her father under section 120-B (conspiracy) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Meanwhile, Devendra Fadnavis claimed in the Maharashtra assembly that a few people had set a trap to defame his family over corruption charges.
Leader of the Opposition Ajit Pawar raised the issue, asking Fadnavis to clarify the matter. Fadnavis said some people had tried to lay a trap by offering a bribe.
“I thank Ajit Pawar for raising the issue. My wife has filed an FIR. She has said in it that some people had tried to use her to pressurise me into helping Anil Jaisinghani, who is an absconder, with several criminal cases against him. His daughter would meet Amruta in 2015-’16. Later, the meetings stopped. She again started meeting Amruta in 2021 saying she was a designer. She gained Amruta’s trust by telling stories and even claimed to have published a book,” he said.
Fadnavis also alleged that Aniksha had offered his wife designer clothes. Later, she told Amruta about her father and said that there were fake cases against him and sought help. “She also said that her father knew bookies and by raiding them, we could make money. My wife refused. She (Jaisinghani’s daughter) again approached her and said that she could offer Rs 1 crore, to help save her father,” he informed.
Fadnavis, in wife's defence, says she blocked number, was threatened that they'll hamper his career
Fadnavis further said that his wife had blocked her number, after which she (Amruta) began to receive videos and messages from an unknown number. “There was one video in which the girl is seen packing money in a bag and that bag is seen in my house,” said Fadnavis.
“My wife was threatened that this video would hamper my career. After Amruta told me about it, we called the police and filed an FIR but did not make it public. We did a forensic report of the video, which showed that the bags were different.”
“With help from the police, we continued to engage the said person and in one conversation, the names of police officers and leaders were revealed. We were told that the previous CP (police commissioner) had started the procedure to take back cases. It stopped when our government came in. We have recorded everything,” Fadnavis said.
Fadnavis alleged that in the past too, there had been a big conspiracy to trap his family and arrest him. He said many political leaders and police officers had been involved in this.
