A sessions court has rejected the plea of Aniksha Jaisinghani, daughter of bookie Anil Jaisinghani, seeking return of all the gadgets allegedly used for blackmailing Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife, Amruta.
The court rejected the plea as the data from the gadgets have not been analysed by forensic experts for want of manpower. It asked the police to request authorities to expedite the analysis.
Aniksha pleaded that due to the seizure of the devices, she had been logged out from all her social media and communication accounts.
The prosecution said, “There is a huge pendency of the electronic material with FSL due to which they cannot assess the data. It is submitted that the FSL does not have sufficient manpower for analysis of the said data and thus the said articles have not been taken for analysis…”
The court after hearing both the sides said that since the data has not yet been analysed, the gadgets cannot be returned. However, it asked the investigating officer to communicate to the respective authority to give priority to the gadgets seized in the case and expedite the analysis. The court also gave liberty to Aniksha to approach it later on.
According to the FIR registered by the Malabar Hill police on February 20, the father-daughter duo allegedly blackmailed Amruta and tried to extort ₹10 crore from her. Posing as a fashion designer, Aniksha had befriended Amruta in November 2021 and gained her trust by saying she had lost her mother and the whole family was dependent on her, police said.
As per the FIR, Aniksha requested the complainant to wear her label to promote it and the latter agreed to it. Aniksha even visited the deputy CM’s residence and showed up at public events attended by Amruta, the complaint said.
Aniksha later offered to relay information about cricket bookies to her, saying they could both make money off it and when the complainant stopped communicating with her, Aniksha offered her a bribe of Rs1 crore in exchange for clearing her father of all charges, the police said. After that, Amruta blocked her, the complaint added.
A few days later, Aniksha sent her a few audio and video recordings, which purportedly showed that the latter was accepting favours from the former and said if she did not pay her Rs10 crore those clips would be made public, the FIR added.
Aniksha was arrested on March 16 and the special court granted her bail on March 27.
