How police scripted Amruta Fadnavis' 'help offer' to nab fugitive bookie

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police took the help of singer-banker Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, to track and arrest a bookie named Anil Jaisinghani of Ulhasnagar, who was absconding since the past 7-8 years, officials said here.

Amruta, acting as per the police's strategic advice, made an �offer' to help out Jaisinghani from the cases lodged against him if they were false as he claimed, said the investigating officer (IO), Ravi Sardesai.

As per the 733-page charge sheet filed before the special ACB court on May 18 - some details of which are now available - the strategic conversation took place on February 24, four days after Amruta had lodged the case against the fashionista Aniksha Jaisinghani, the (then) absconding bookie and her father fugitive Anil Jaisinghani.

Amruta had filed a complaint with the Malabar Hill police station on February 20 after the sensational case blew up with allegations of bribes, extortion, blackmail, threats to Amruta by the Jaisinghani father-daughter duo.

The entire conversation between Amruta and the fraudsters was part of a police design to track the location of Anil, who was evading the law for nearly 7-8 years.

"We instructed the complainant (Amruta) to engage him through WhatsApp chats and other means for a prolonged period till the accused (Anil) was caught," said Sardesai on the covert deal that succeeded.

The ploy worked handsomely with Amruta's cooperation and Anil Jaisinghani along with his nephew Nirmal were nabbed from Gujarat after a 72-hour �Operation AJ' on March 20 (IANS reported on March 20). Aniksha had already been arrested on March 16 from Ulhasnagar.

The charge-sheet includes the exchange of the WhatsApp chats between Amruta and the Jaisinghanis of February 24, four days after she lodged the police complaint.

In one such chat, Amruta assured Anil that "if you are wrongly framed, I can talk to Devenji (her husband Devendra Fadnavis) and tell him to do justice, but I can't succumb to the demands which Aniksha had made about earning illegal money. I know I have not done anything wrong and you and Aniksha, with an intention to blackmail me, have operated from day one."

Amruta added that most of the videos which Aniksha had threatened to use against her would "defame me for some time", but after the truth came out, they would not have any effect.

"If you are really doing it to get justice, then tell me what you really want me to do," Amruta asked Anil, who responded with several audio messages, as per the charge sheet.

In another message, Amruta said even if she agreed to help Anil out, it was not because of the videos with which Aniksha had been blackmailing her.

She demanded of Anil on what assurance he could provide that he would not start demanding more after the cases against him were withdrawn, given the manner in which Aniksha had been insisting her to earn illegal money through betting rackets.

Anil contended that Aniksha did what she thought would help him get out of the cases and she had recorded the calls and meetings for their own protection and not to harm Amruta, and it was only information (on betting rackets) she wanted to pass on.

In another chat, Amruta agreed to meet Aniksha to understand the cases and even assured to speak with Devendra Fadnavis after he finished the Pune (Assembly) bypolls campaign.

Amruta also contended that her relations with her husband had reportedly soured since 2019 and she apprehended a divorce after this case, as per the charge sheet.

Incidentally, Amruta had blocked Aniksha a day before filing her police complaint and then Anil started communicating with the Deputy CM's wife.

Among other things, Anil accused Amruta of accepting dollars from Aniksha at the office of a leading music and film production house, claiming that his daughter had given a bag of Rs 98 lakh to one of her (Amruta's) staffers.

The police charge sheet followed the investigations into the case initiated after Amruta's complaint on February 20 accusing the father-daughter duo of blackmail, attempt to extort Rs 10 crore, another attempt to bribe her with Rs 1 crore to help her father, offers to provide information about cricket bookies to make money, etc.

The Jaisinghanis, including a relative named Nirmal, were later arrested and booked under various charges. The ploce recorded statements of 13 witnesses, investigated the calls and bank records, assets etc. in Maharashtra and other states.