Three persons — Anil Jaisinghani, his daughter Aniksha and cousin brother Nirmal — arrested for allegedly blackmailing and trying to extort Rs 10 crore from Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, were produced before court Tuesday and remanded in police custody. While Anil and Nirmal were sent to police custody till March 27, Aniksha, who was produced for the second time, was remanded in police custody till Friday. Terming it as an “illegal arrest”, defense lawyers Mrigenra Singh and Manan Sanghai argued before the court that Jaisinghani and Nirmal were apprehended at 11.45 pm Sunday but the two were not produced before the court within the mandatory 24 hours. "The police did not get them to Mumbai in transit remand either," Singh told the court. Speaking with mediapersons after the court hearing, Singh said, "The persons were arrested from Godhra in Gujarat and produced after 36 hours of arrest in Mumbai directly and this is a clear violation of Section 167 and 57 of the CrPC which provides for the production of arrested persons before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours. They were deliberately not produced in Gujarat and surprisingly, handed over to Mumbai police without requesting for his custody to be registered in Gujarat." The police officials alleged that the two were caught from the Godhra border and were arrested around 5 pm Monday. "They were detained on suspicion and once their identities were confirmed, Jaisinghani and Nirmal were arrested," the chief public prosecutor Jaising Desai told the court. The police had sought the custody of the three accused on the grounds that Jaisinghani and his daughter needed to be confronted. "They are a part of a larger conspiracy and we want to find that," the public prosecutor said. The public prosecutor also told the court that Aniksha has not been cooperating with them and was not sharing the password to her phones (that has been seized by police) and wifi dongle. The defense lawyers also said that the arrest is politically motivated and governed by the ministry or the secretary. The Malabar Hill police registered an FIR on February 20 against the father-daughter duo for allegedly trying to blackmail Amruta by threatening to make public some audio and video clips that would make it appear that the latter was accepting favours from her. As per the complaint, Aniksha had befriended Amruta over the past few years and gained her trust. As per the complaint, when she asked Amruta to help get rid of cases against her father, the latter blocked her. A few days later, Aniksha was alleged to have sent audio and video recordings to Amruta to blackmail her. Following this, Amruta approached the Malabar Hill police.
