Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis spoke about the 'trap' that the Maharashtra government and the state police had laid to catch a designer who allegedly tried to bribe and blackmail his wife, Amruta Fadnavis.
Amruta Fadnavis, in a First Information Report (FIR), alleged that a woman named 'Aniksha', claiming to be a designer, tried to bribe her, offering her Rs 1 crore to intervene in a criminal case involving her father, who is a bookie. She filed the complaint on February 20.
After being cornered by the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, Mr Fadnavis spoke at length about the case. He told the house that Aniksha used to meet Amruta Fadnavis in 2015-16, but then the visits stopped. She again met Ms Fadnavis in 2021 and convinced her that she is a designer, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra said.
According to the FIR, Ms Fadnavis said the woman sent her video clips, voice notes, and messages from an unknown number on February 18 and 19.
The Mumbai Police has filed a case against the woman and her father for conspiracy under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Mr Fadnavis told the House that the designer ingratiated herself with his wife in an attempt to save her father.
"The FIR details the corruption and bribery attempt. Anil Jaisinghani is a bookie, missing for four or five years. There are 14 cases against him. His daughter Aniksha, who is educated, got in touch with my wife after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power," Mr Fadnavis told reporters.
Devendra Fadnavis said that the FIR by his wife was deliberately not made public as cops want to trap the accused. The police planned to engage with the accused, who was allegedly under the impression that they did not know about the bribe and blackmail against Ms Fadnavis.
"With help from the police, we continued to engage the said person and in one conversation names of police officers and leaders were revealed. We were told that the previous police commissioner had started the procedure to take cases back," Mr Fadnavis said.
He claimed that now that the case has made headlines, the accused will be alert and may not get caught.