Aniksha a law student, posed as designer to get close to Amruta Fadnavis: Police

“But her latest statement, claming that she was a law student, has made us believe that it was a far-fetched plan hatched by the father and daughter to blackmail Amruta,” said an officer.

Fadnavis had said in the state Assembly that Aniksha initially met his wife in 2015-2016.

The Malabar Hill police, which registered an FIR in the matter on February 20, had said that Aniksha requested Amruta to wear her designed clothes, jewellery and footwear at public events to promote her work. As Amruta allegedly felt sympathetic, she agreed to wear them.

A senior officer said they have recovered some designer clothes and jewelleries from Aniksha’s Ulhasnagar residence and are trying to ascertain whether they were bought or rented out to trap Amruta.

“Aniksha has said that she is not a designer and we suspect that she posed as one because she wanted to get close to Amruta and get the cases registered against her father dropped. Now, we are trying to figure out the locations from where she managed to get these designer clothes… some of them we suspect were worn by Amruta at public events,” the officer added.

The police said that after getting close to Amruta, Aniksha allegedly started blackmailing her with videos and audio clips that would make it appear that Amruta was accepting favours from her. She then asked Amruta to get all pending cases against her father dropped and offered Rs 1 crore bribe.

“Before sending any (blackmail) message to Amruta, Aniksha would initially discuss it with her father. She would even share the message or a screenshot of Amruta’s reply with Jaisinghani, following which Aniksha would send further texts,” said an officer.

However, the police said that some threatening and blackmailing messages were also sent by Anil Jaisinghani directly. “We have seized some cellphones that has text messages, which confirms that the two hatched a plan together and sent messages to Amruta only after thorough discussion,” said the officer.

Anil and Aniksha would allegedly also keep a close eye on Amruta’s social media accounts and news reports appearing about her and her husband. “Aniksha would discuss the news reports or her posts with Amruta to get close to her,” the officer said.