‘Bookie’ Anil Jaisinghani, who tried to blackmail Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis’ family, walks out of prison on bail

While the list of cases provided by the police to the court dated back to a few years, his latest brush with the law a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against him and his daughter Aniksha by Amruta Fadnavis at Malabar Hill police station on February 20, 2023.

The complaint said that Aniksha posing as a designer had gained access to Amruta and subsequently recorded videos and audios of their meetings in an attempt to blackmail her.

The police claimed that Aniksha worked with her father in planning and executing the conspiracy, where they first tried to offer Amruta a bribe of Rs 1 crore, seeking her intervention in dropping the pending cases against her father. The police claimed that after Amruta refused and blocked her phone, Aniksha then threatened her through the videos and sought Rs 10 crore as extortion money.

“Anil Jaisinghani has been absconding for the past seven to eight years. There are 14-15 cases registered against him. He has a daughter (Aniksha), who is smart and well-educated. She got in touch with Amruta in 2015-2016 but she stopped all contact after that; but in 2021, she approached my wife again,” Fadnavis had said in the state Assembly after The Indian Express published a report on March 16, 2023.

The police first arrested Aniksha in March 16, 2023 and said that Jaisinghani continued to be on the run. Later on March 19, Jaisinghani along with his cousin Nirmal were trapped and arrested from Godhra district with the help of the Gujarat Police. The duo were trying to escape in a car, the police claimed. While Aniksha and Nirmal were granted bail in March, Jaisinghani remained in custody with other investigators also seeking his custody for pending cases against him.

According to officials, Jaisinghani was on the radar of the investigators as an ‘influential cricket bookie’, operating out of the suburb of Ulhasnagar, nearly 50 km from Mumbai. Jaisinghani was also on the radar of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption and Securities Unit (ACSU). Once brought to the notice of the ACSU sleuths, he was under the scanner.

An ACSU official, who did not wish to be named, had then told The Indian Express, “He (Anil) is a person of interest for us. It was in 2015 he was very active but since then he is absconding. The ACSU had then got in touch with the local police for more information”.

A 733-odd page chargesheet submitted by the Malabar Hill police in June 2023 to the special court referred to a claim made by Jaisinghani that he had suffered loss to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in the eight years that he had to be on the run from investigators.

Before his arrest in the extortion case, Jaisinghani was arrested three times in betting cases. In all, the police officials revealed he had around 17 cases registered against him with the first case against him dating back to 1985. In fact, Goa Police had opened a Look Out Circular on May 11, 2019, to locate him.

Almost nine years ago in May 2015, the Gujarat Enforcement Directorate (ED) had raided two of Jaisinghani’s houses and booked him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He continued to be on the run citing poor health. The next year, police stations in Azad Maidan and Sakinaka, both in Mumbai, had registered cases of cheating and forgery against him.

A senior Mumbai police official said, “The Ahmedabad sessions court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him. Initially, posing to be ill, he got admitted to a hospital but later submitted a bogus medical certificate, claiming his wife Karishma has to take a test for a surgery.”

The Azad Maidan police were later informed that he had forged the signature of a doctor in Lilavati Hospital. Following this, a case of cheating and forgery was registered against Jaisinghani on May 1, 2016.

As the police couldn’t locate him for three years, the Bombay High Court declared him a proclaimed offender last year.

A police officer said Jaisinghani is based mainly in Ulhasnagar in Thane district, and those familiar with the booking circuit know him well. “After the proclamation notice was issued by the HC in September 2018, we posted banners in the hope that somebody would inform us about his location but we struggled to locate him,” he said.

In September 2018, the Azad Maidan police had sealed Jaisinghani’s Ulhasnagar residence. Officers from Gujarat ED as well as Mumbai, Thane, Goa, Assam and Madhya Pradesh Police were on the lookout for Jaisinghani then.

Once he was arrested in the Malabar Hill case, a few investigating agencies sought his custody for a probe including the ED. A Gujarat court, however, refused to grant the central agency his custody on health grounds and he was sent back to Taloja jail.

In April 2023, the special court rejected his first bail plea in the Malabar Hill case citing the pending cases against him. Within a few months, however, he was granted bail in multiple cases.

Jaisinghani also maintained that many of the cases against him were either compounded, settled or withdrawn. In September 2023, the special court granted him bail in the Malabar Hill case. It took into account the fact that the cases were either withdrawn or settled.

Jaisinghani remained in custody in two more Mumbai police cases, one in Azad Maidan and one in Saki Naka.

While he was granted bail in the Azad Maidan case in December 2023, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted him bail in the Saki Naka case, the last pending one. This case related to the alleged forgery of a number plate of a vehicle filed in 2016. The Mumbai police opposed bail to him claiming that it had not been given the opportunity to investigate Jaisinghani and that its probe was still on. The police also claimed that he was a history sheeter.

Justice N J Jamadar said that since the chargesheet was filed in July 2023, the police cannot oppose bail on the ground that its probe is still on. The court also said that no proof was shown of any steps taken to take his custody for the probe.

Jaisinghani was ordered to be released with conditions, similar to the ones set for his previous bail pleas. He cannot leave the country without the permission of the court, he shall mark his presence at the police station from time to time, that he cannot tamper with the evidence, remain present for the trial. The trial in the Malabar Hill case is yet to begin with the court having fixed it for framing of charges this month.