A Mumbai sessions court on Monday granted bail to accused bookie Anil Jaisinghani, six months after he was arrested from Gujarat in March in connection with an extortion case lodged by Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Granting bail on a Rs 50,000 bond, Additional Sessions Judge D. D. Almale has ordered Jaisinghani to surrender his passport with the police, not leave the country without the court’s prior permission, attend the court daily, and not influence witnesses in any manner, and other conditions.
His daughter and co-accused Aniksha Jaisinghani, nabbed from Ulhasnagar on March 17, was granted bail after 10 days.
The father-daughter and a cousin, Nirmal Jaisinghani had been booked by the Malabar Hill Police Station under charges of Prevention of Corruption Act and others. It followed a complaint by Amruta Fadnavis on February 20, and then discreet police investigations were launched to trap and arrest all the accused.
Among other things, Amruta Fadnavis has contended that Aniksha Jaisinghani had attempted to lure and bribe her in return for helping out in a criminal case against her father, then threatened, blackmailed her with audio-video clips and tried to extort money from her.
Anil Jaisinghani, who was facing and absconding in several other cases, was finally nabbed on March 20 from his hideout in Gujarat along with the relative, Nirmal Jaisinghani.
In April, the Sessions Court court had rejected his bail plea and later the Bombay High Court junked Anil Jaisinghani’s plea challenging his arrest as ‘illegal’.