Amruta Fadnavis ‘extortion’ case: Anil Jaisinghani and cousin move Bombay HC seeking quashing of FIR, interim release
Anil Jaisinghani, his daughter Aniksha, and Nirmal — arrested for allegedly blackmailing and trying to extort Rs 10 crore from Amruta Fadnavis — were produced before a court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody.
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Alleged bookie Anil Jaisinghani being taken to custody after a court remanded him to police custody till March 27 in a case related to alleged attempt to blackmail and bribe Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, in Mumbai, March 21, 2023. (PTI)Bookie Anil Jaisinghani and his cousin Nirmal, who have been accused in a case related to the alleged extortion of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis, have approached the Bombay High Court seeking to quash FIR against them.
Anil, his daughter Aniksha, and Nirmal — arrested for allegedly blackmailing and trying to extort Rs 10 crore from Amruta Fadnavis — were produced before a court on 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 March 24.
Jaisinghanis, in a writ plea filed through advocate Manan Shanghai, have claimed their arrest to be “illegal” and also sought quashing of the order by the Sessions Court remanding them to police custody. They have claimed their arrests were violative of sections 41 and 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and that required procedures under the law were not followed while arresting them.
Pending hearing of the writ plea, Jaisinghanis have sought interim release from custody.
“The accused have been kept in police custody beyond the prescribed period, without lawful justification, and the same is in violation of their fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India. Delay in producing the accused before the Magistrate and non-compliance of the mandatory provisions of the CrPC, by the police officials concerned, has caused grave prejudice to the accused,” Jaisinghanis claimed.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with his wife Amruta Fadnavis. (Express Photo by Ganesh Shirsekar)
They also said in the plea, “Merely stating in the order that it is due compliance of Section 41 to 41A of the Cr. P.C. is not sufficient in view of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Amesh Kumar and Satender Kuamar Antil cases. It is not an empty formality. The onus of recording satisfaction, as already stated, not only lies on the Investigating Officer but even on the remanding Judge. Justice has been consistently denied by respondents.”
The plea has sought direction from the court to declare the detention of petitioners to be “illegal” and violative of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The plea was mentioned before a division bench on Thursday and it is likely to heard on Monday, March 27.
The Malabar Hill police had registered an FIR on February 20 against Anil and Aniksha for allegedly trying to blackmail Amruta Fadnavis by threatening to make public some audio and video clips that would make it appear that the latter was accepting favours from her.
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