Mumbai: The Mumbai Police on Monday nabbed suspected bookie Anil Jaisinghani from Gujarat, days after his daughter Aniksha Jaisinghani was arrested for allegedly trying to blackmail and bribe the wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, an official said. A crime branch official confirmed that Anil Jaisinghani, who has 14 to 15 cases pending against him, was nabbed from Gujarat but refused to divulge details.
The Mumbai Police had on March 16 arrested Aniksha Anil Jaisinghani, a designer, after Devendra Fadnavis's wife Amruta accused her of offering a bribe for intervening in a criminal case and also threatening her. Anishka Jaisinghani is in police custody till March 21.
The accused tried to extort Rs 10 crore from Amruta Fadnavis by threatening to circulate morphed videos, and hence they invoked Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) against Anishka Jaisinghani and her father Anil Jaisinghani, the police said last week.
The Malabar Hill police station in south Mumbai had registered a First Information Report (FIR) in the case on February 20 on Amruta Fadnavis's complaint. The FIR was registered under IPC section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act pertaining to using illegal means to induce a public servant to show favour or disfavour to any person. Later, the IPC section related to extortion was added.
Chief Public Prosecutor Jaysing Desai told a Mumbai court last week that photos, videos and other material evidence shows there was a conspiracy to fix "the informant (complainant Amruta Fadnavis) and ultimately the public servant" (Devendra Fadnavis).
The accused wanted to "use of the office of public servant", Desai had added.
Advocate Milan Hebale, appearing for Anishka Jaisinghani, had told the court that of the total cases filed against Anil Jaisinghani, 13 have been "settled" (closed). (PTI)
