Amruta Fadnavis bribe FIR: Police collect Aniksha Jaisinghani’s voice and handwriting samples

PTI, Mar 23, 2023, 1:55 PM IST

Mumbai police have collected the handwriting and voice samples of Aniksha Jaisinghani, who is accused of trying to blackmail and bribe Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta, for forensic analysis, an official said on Thursday.

Aniksha, daughter of suspected bookie Anil Jaisinghani, was arrested on March 16 for allegedly attempting to offer Rs 1 crore to Amruta for intervening in a criminal case and also threatening her. Anil Jaisinghani, also an accused in the case, was arrested on March 20 from Gujarat.

According to the official, Aniksha had shot a video of a bag being filled with currency notes worth Rs 1 crore and sent the clip to Amruta from another mobile number after the complainant blocked her number. As the video also had the voice of Aniksha, officials from the Malabar Hill police station, where the case was registered on Amruta’s complaint, collected her voice samples for forensic analysis, the official said. Police have also examined voice chats and other related data in Aniksha’s iPhone, he said. The total data is more than 100 GB, the official said. Aniksha had allegedly given an envelope with some notes written in a code language to the complainant. This prompted the police to collect her handwriting samples, which was done in front of ‘panchas’ (independent witnesses), the official said.

Police have also talked to Aniksha about the code language and have tried to decipher it, he said without elaborating.

After registration of the FIR, Amruta had emailed two video files that she had received on WhatsApp to the investigating officer, he said. The files were sent to a forensic science lab, which analysed the clips and gave a report, he said.

According to the report, it came to light that accused Aniksha was “deliberately cheating Amruta Fadnavis”, the official said. Aniksha and her father have been remanded in police custody till March 24 and March 27, respectively.

Besides the father-daughter duo, police have also arrested their relative Nirmal Jaisinghani. He too has been remanded to police custody till March 27.

Based on Amruta Fadnavis’s complaint, police had on February 20 registered a case against the father and daughter under Indian Penal Code sections for conspiracy, extortion and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.