Amruta Fadnavis bribe case: Cannot order return of gadgets to accused, says special court

Mumbai, Aug 19 (PTI) A special court here has rejected a request by Aniksha Jaisinghani, accused of threatening, conspiring and trying to bribe Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis, for the return of her seized electronic gadgets.

Jaisinghani, daughter of alleged bookie Anil Jaisinghani, also an accused in the case, in her application said that her iPhone and iPad were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for analysis in May 2023 but have not yet been processed by the lab.

The special Anti Corruption Board (ACB) court in an order on August 16 rejected her application.

The court said at this stage no relief can be granted by handing the custody of the seized electronic gadgets to the accused.

The court has, however, directed the police to request the FSL to give priority to the gadgets of Jaisinghani for analysis.

Jaisinghani said enough time has been granted to the FSL and it was imperative that she too has access to her gadgets and information for her defence.

The police opposed the plea claiming that some more time is required for Cyber Forensic officials to draw the data, which they said was under progress.

There is a huge pendency of electronic materials with FSL due to which they have not been able to access the data, the police said, adding that if the devices are returned now, then there was a possibility of evidence being destroyed.

The case was registered by Malabar police station in February 2023 on a complaint by Amruta Fadnavis, who alleged that Aniksha Jaisinghani posed as a designer and threatened to make her voice notes and video clips public if she did not pay her Rs 10 crore and get her father's name cleared from all charges.

The father and daughter have been charged with sections 120 B (conspiracy) and 383 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI SP NR