Anil Jaisinghani, a suspected bookie, has been detained by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an investigation into a ‘betting racket’ for the Indian Premier League (IPL), according to officials.
Jaisinghani and his daughter Aniksha were recently detained by the Mumbai Police for allegedly forming a plot to extort money from Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, by sending her purportedly her private messages, and for allegedly conspiring to bribe and blackmail her.
His custody was taken on Friday by the ED’s Ahmedabad office, which appeared before a Mumbai court with a production warrant and requested his custody in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Ahmedabad court issued an open non-bailable warrant against Jaisinghani in connection with the federal agency’s ongoing investigation into a money laundering case from 2015 involving alleged betting on IPL games. The warrant was issued in connection with that investigation.
The agency is understood to be recording Jaisinghani’s statement in this case having obtained his custody on Friday.
Jaisinghani was recently also taken into custody by the Madhya Pradesh Police in a case of alleged bootlegging.
The father-daughter pair is alleged to have hatched a conspiracy as part of which Aniksha developed friendly relations with Amruta Fadnavis and then requested her to “save her father from the several criminal cases pending against him as the husband of the complainant (Amruta Fadnavis) is a public servant.”
Aniksha tried to offer a bribe of Rs.1 crore to Amruta Fadnavis.
Anil Jaisinghani and Aniksha were the subjects of a formal complaint (FIR) filed on February 20 against them by the Malabar Hill Police Station in south Mumbai for allegedly threatening to leak certain audio and video clips that purportedly depict Amruta Fadnavis accepting favours from Aniksha.
Aniksha, who was arrested on March 17, was granted bail in the case on March 27 by the court.
Anil Jaisinghani, who was arrested by the Mumbai Police from Gujarat, is currently in judicial custody after the court rejected his bail plea.