Bookie Anil Jaisinghani wanted in Amruta Fadnavis extortion case nabbed in Godhra

“He was caught around 11.30 pm on Sunday, and we handed him over to the Mumbai Crime Branch Monday morning,” said sub-inspector R R Gohil of Vejalpur police station in Panchmahal district.

He will be produced before a Mumbai court on Tuesday.

On March 16, the day The Indian Express published a report about Amruta lodging an FIR at Malabar Hill police station alleging threat, conspiracy and a Rs 1 crore bribe bid, Jaisinghani’s daughter Aniksha was arrested from Ulhasnagar.

An influential bookie and history-sheeter, with more than 17 cases against him in five states, Jaisinghani had been on the run for over seven years.

According to the FIR lodged at Malabar Hill police station on February 20, Jaisinghani and his daughter were allegedly trying to blackmail Amruta by threatening to make public audio and video clips that would have made it appear that the latter was accepting favours from Aniksha.

According to the complaint, Aniksha had befriended Amruta over the past few years and gained her trust. However, when she asked Amruta to help get rid of cases against her father, the latter blocked her. A few days later, Aniksha allegedly sent audio and video recordings to Amruta to blackmail her. Following this, Amruta approached the police. While Aniksha was arrested last week, the police had been conducting searches for Jaisinghani.

According to Mumbai Police, five teams were formed as part of “operation AJ” to trace Jaisinghani and the search narrowed down to the Godhra border. “We were on his trail for the past three days but would miss him by a few minutes. Eventually, last night we arrested him from the border of Godhra district. The team got him back to Mumbai Monday morning and handed him over to the Malabar Hill police station,” a Mumbai police officer said.

Addressing reporters in Mumbai, Deputy Commissioner of Police Balsingh Rajput said Jaisinghani had been using high-tech devices to hide his location and evade arrest. Soon after a search was launched, the police found that he was in Shirdi on March 13. “We went to Shirdi, where we learnt that he had escaped from there. We learnt that he was heading to Bardoli, and from there, he went to Surat,” said Rajput.

Elaborating, an investigator said from Surat, Jaisinghani went to Baruch and then Vadodara.

“He knew how to dodge the police, due to which he managed to evade arrest for the past eight years. In the last three to four days, we were in touch with Gujarat police and we missed catching him by a couple of minutes at three locations,” said a senior IPS officer.

“Around 11.45 pm on Sunday, he was caught at Khadki toll booth on Godhra border by Gujarat Police,” said an officer. The Mumbai Crime Branch officers, who were trailing Jaisinghani, reached the spot within 10 minutes and took over his custody.

“His relative and the driver who helped him in evading arrest have been detained and handed over to Malabar Hill police for questioning,” said DCP Rajput. Late on Monday, the relative, Nirmal Jaisinghani, was placed under arrest.