While seeking 7-day custody, the Mumbai Police told the court they had added charges of extortion as the woman had sent some “morphed” videos to Amruta to demand Rs 10 crore from her.
By Vidya : Anshika Jaisinghani, the 26-year-old who was booked for attempting to ‘bribe’ Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has now been booked for extortion as well, and sent to police custody till March 21. According to Mumbai Police, after her failed bid to offer Rs 1 crore bribe, Jaisinghani started demanding Rs 10 crore from Amruta through blackmail.
WHAT THE POLICE ARGUED
In the special court on Friday, the Mumbai Police sought seven-day custody of Jaisinghani. While seeking custody, the police said they had added charges of extortion (Section 384 of IPC) in the case, claiming that the accused had blackmailed the complainant (Amruta) and demanded Rs 10 crore, after sending her some videos, which the police claimed were morphed.
Chief Public Prosecutor Jaising Desai told the court that the accused had at first tried to induce the deputy CM’s wife with Rs 1 crore to make sure that cases against Anshika’s father, Anil Jaisinghani, could be managed. But when that did not work, she sent some morphed videos. Desai added that at one point Anshika had told Amruta that her father was angry as she had blocked them and was not responding. Desaid submitted that this meant that Anshika was in touch with her father, who had been absconding for the last few years.
According to the police, Anil Jaisinghani is a well-known bookie with various cases registered against him.
During a search, the Mumbai Police recovered some gadgets and a SIM card that had been sent for forensic testing. But Desai stressed that there was one particular phone used by Anshika to send messages to Amruta that is yet to be recovered.
Desai added that Anil Jaisinghani, the absconding accused in the case, has 17 cases registered against him, while Anshika herself is facing a case in Goa. He pressed that the police would not be able to conduct further investigation if they are not given custody.
WHAT THE ACCUSED SAID
Jaisinghani’s lawyer, Milan Hebballi, while not opposing police custody, sought that minimum police custody be given. He said he wanted to put the record straight that out of 17 cases against Anil Jaisinghani, 13 had come to a close. He added that the Goa case is registered because of a property dispute by some local person with whom Anil Jaisinghani has some enmity. Hebballi submitted that the daughter had already been granted anticipatory bail in the case by the Goa bench of Bombay High Court.
