MUMBAI: A trial court on Friday remanded to judicial custody Aniksha Jaisinghani, who was arrested on a complaint by Amruta Fadnavis, wife of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, that she was blackmailed by her.
Jaisinghani, 25, daughter of bookie Anil Jaisinghani who is also under arrest as a co-accused, had filed for bail through her advocate Manan Sanghai.
The bail plea said maximum punishment the FIR against her attracts is seven years' imprisonment and the Malabar police station which arrested her did not comply with the mandatory procedure of first issuing her a notice to appear and explain the accusations.
Judge D D Almale sought a reply from the police and posted the bail plea for hearing on Monday.
Jaisinghani, who was arrested on March 16 and held in police custody, was produced in court at 2.50pm. She looked tearful when being led away by a women police escort team. "I want to go home,'' she was heard saying.
Police claimed she was known to Amruta Fadnavis for 16 months.
Special public prosecutor Ajay Misar representing the state had sought "reasonable" extension of her police custody. He said the statement of a woman witness brought from Kolhapur had been recorded; Jaisinghani was needed in police custody for questioning in the witness's presence. He said the search for a bag and the need to analyse data from a phone required her to be in police remand for three to four days.
Defence advocate Sanghai said Jaisinghani who has no criminal antecedents has been in police custody since March 17 and police had been given "sufficient time'' to interrogate her.
He cited a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that said "police custody should be an exception, not a rule". He relied on another SC ruling of 1978 that said for recovery of documents police custody of accused was not needed.
The trial court judge has remanded Jaisinghani to judicial custody in prison till April 6. Police invoked section 8 (bribe taken to influence public servant) and 12 (abetting bribery) of the Prevention of Corruption Act along with criminal conspiracy (section 120 B Indian Penal Code) against her.
Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, w...
Read MoreSwati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.
Read Less
Start a Conversation
Post comment