The Mumbai police detained a resident of Ulhasnagar for questioning in connection with an alleged case of bribery and threatening against Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The detention came a month after Amruta Fadnavis filed a First Information Report (FIR) against a woman named Anshika and her father, a top bookie named Anil Jaisinghani. The FIR accused the duo of attempting to bribe and later threaten Amruta Fadnavis.
The police have registered a case against the accused under Section 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for conspiracy, and Sections 8 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
According to media reports, Amruta Fadnavis alleged in the FIR filed on February 20 at the Malabar Hill police station that the accused, who claimed to be an apparel, jewellery, and footwear designer, offered her Rs 1 crore to get her father's name cleared from a police case.
Amruta Fadnavis said that she first met the accused woman in November 2021, who had claimed that her family was dependent on her after losing her mother.
The accused woman requested Amruta Fadnavis to wear products designed by her at public events to promote her clothes, jewellery, and footwear. Later, after gaining Amruta Fadnavis's trust, the accused woman offered to provide her with information on bookies to make money.
Devendra Fadnavis has claimed this to be a political conspiracy to trap his family members and ruin his political career. He said that the accused woman dropped veiled threats, claiming that she could implicate him if the cases against her father were not withdrawn.
The woman had been dropping names of police officers and politicians to boast of her contacts, Fadnavis said, adding that there were attempts to get the cases dropped during the tenure of the last police commissioner too.
Devendra Fadnavis also claimed that the designer tried to blackmail his wife with some audio and video recordings from unknown numbers after Amruta Fadnavis blocked her number on her phone. A forensic audit of the recordings has proved that they are false, he informed.
(With agency inputs)
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