New Delhi: The wheels of justice turn slowly in India. Even for the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s wife. Three years after a chargesheet, the case involving Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis and law graduate Aniksha Jaisinghani is still stuck, with forensic reports holding up the trial, and Aniksha preparing to go to the UK for further studies.
The case dates back to 2023, when then law student Aniksha, her father Anil Jaisinghani and their aide Nirmal Jaisinghani rose to the heights of infamy from the bylanes of Ulhasnagar. Then Deputy CM’s wife, Amruta Fadnavis alleged that Aniksha befriended her, lent her designer clothes and jewellery, only to set a trap to blackmail her into getting cases against Aniksha’s history-sheeter father and bookie Anil Jaisinghani scrapped.
The case has been pending at the stage of framing of charges for three years now, while the court awaits forensic laboratory results on the accused persons’ electronic gadgets including phones, ipads, sim cards and pen drives. The forensic reports have been delayed purportedly due to a huge pendency at the laboratory and the lack of manpower.
Meanwhile, all accused, represented by advocate Swarali Joglekar, are out on bail. The main accused, Aniksha Jaisinghani now has a legal career. She has been out on bail since March 2023. She completed her law degree in January 2026, and has been interning at the chamber of a senior advocate for about two years. She is also planning to pursue higher education in the UK, and has even managed to get her passport back from the court.
Anshika’s father, Anil Jaisinghani, had over a dozen cases pending against him in Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Maharashtra back in 2023, but has since settled several of these cases. But the court permitted Aniksha to visit Taloja jail and get Anil’s signatures on a legal document allowing Aniksha to take over a shop in Ulhasnagar, even after the prosecution submitted that the shop might get attached by the ED in a PMLA case registered against Anil in Gujarat.
The chargesheet was filed in May 2023, under Sections 8 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, relating to the offence of giving or promising a bribe, along with abetment of an offence. The chargesheet also mentions Section 385 (extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case has come up before the court 39 times since 2023, and came up only 6 times through the entire year of 2025.
How Aniksha got back her passport
When Aniksha was granted bail by the court, one of the conditions was that she would surrender her passport and not leave the court’s jurisdiction without prior permission of the court. This meant that she would have to take the court’s permission even to travel to another city.
After the chargesheet was filed, Aniksha approached the court for relaxation of this condition imposed by the court. She told the court that she needed to look after the cases against her father since he was in jail, and so she needed to meet the lawyers and furnish the requisite papers.
Judge Deepak D. Alamle agreed with her submission that she needed to look after the cases against her father, being the eldest child in the family.
“Though she has a brother, he is younger to her therefore he may not be in a position to properly defend the cases filed against her father,” the judge observed, relaxing the bail condition and allowing her to travel without the court’s permission.
The court also noted that since Aniksha’s passport was with the investigating officer, there was no possibility of her absconding. Three years later in 2026, Aniksha went back to the court for her passport.
She told the court that she wanted to pursue higher education at a university in the UK. She submitted that she wanted to take part in the introductory tours at the university, and needed to apply for a visa.
The special public prosecutor objected to the application on the ground that any particular period or place of journey had not been communicated to the court. He had also told the court that Aniksha’s father had been an offender in 17 crimes, was wanted for 7 offences and was declared a proclaimed offender. He had, therefore, told the court that in view of such antecedents of her father, there was a probability of Aniksha absconding if her application was allowed.
But on 6 May this year, the court allowed her application, on the condition that she would furnish the details of her university and place of admission whenever it was confirmed, and that she would not travel abroad without prior permission of the court, among other things.
The gadgets used
Since the alleged extortion took place through WhatsApp chats, photos, audio recordings and videos, the police authorities seized Aniksha’s phone and iPad, among other things, when she was arrested. All the gadgets—2 tabs, 10 sim cards, 9 mobile phones, 2 dongles, 1 router, 1 DVD, 2 memory cards and 2 pen drives—seized from all the three accused, were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in May 2023.
In 2023, after the chargesheet was filed, Aniksha filed an application for return of her iPhone 13 pro max and her iPad, submitting that her entire study material for her law education was in the electronic gadgets and she needed them for her exams. But the court noted that the investigating officer himself did not have the gadgets since they had been sent for forensic examination.
Aniksha approached the court in 2024 with the same demand, asserting that the data in the devices was also crucial for her own defence. She also told the court that she had been logged out from all her social media and communication accounts because of the seizure and that there was a possibility of tampering of the devices.
In response, the prosecution told the court that there was huge pendency of electronic material at the FSL, and that some more time was needed for cyber forensic officials to extract the data.
It, therefore, said that if the devices are returned, there was a possibility of destroying the material evidence and corrupting the crucial evidence available on the device. FSL authorities informed the prosecution in June 2024 that the lab had 8,655 matters pending before it, due to lack of sufficient manpower for data analysis.
The court rejected her application, but directed the investigating officer to request the FSL authorities to prioritise the analysis of gadgets in this case.
These pending reports have also led to the framing of charges being delayed in the case.
In January 2025, the trial judge noted that the matter was now ready for hearing by the public prosecutor on opening of the case, and on the point of framing of charges.
However, the court was informed that the forensic analysis reports were yet to be received from the DFSL in Kalina, Mumbai, and so, the matter should be kept pending for the production of these reports. The court accepted the request and adjourned the case for production of the report.
In November 2025, the court directed the FSL authorities to expedite the reports since the case had been pending for over two years. On the last date of hearing, on 4 September, the court noted that the FSL report had not been filed by the prosecution yet, adjourning the case to 23 October.
The shop
After the chargesheet was filed in 2023, Aniksha filed an application in the court, requesting to see her father in Taloja Jail, and get his signatures on a ‘Release Deed’, which is a legal document allowing a person to voluntarily give up their rights or interest in a property in favour of another person.
Aniksha told the court that the property in question—a shop in Ulhasnagar—belonged to her mother, who died without a will and so, the property devolved on her and her father since they are her legal heirs.
In response, the prosecution told the court that there was nothing to show that Aniksha had any claim to the property, and that the property was likely to be attached by the ED in connection with a PMLA case registered in Gujarat.
The court noted that Aniksha had not filed any title document to show that the duo had any interest in the property, but noted that she had filed an undertaking that they have interest in the property. It also observed that while there was a PMLA case pending against Anil in Gujarat, the shop had not been attached by the ED in that case.
The court, therefore, allowed Aniksha to get the release deed signed in jail, and directed her to ensure that the release deed executed in jail is the same as the draft deed submitted by her in court.
The conspiracy
The chargesheet in the case was filed in May 2023.
The brief facts mentioned in the chargesheet, seen by ThePrint, talk about a “conspiracy”, pursuant to which Aniksha met Amruta in November 2021, at an event in Mumbai. Aniksha allegedly portrayed herself to Amruta as a designer of clothes, footwear, jewellery and imitation jewellery.
She also allegedly told the then Deputy CM’s wife that she was responsible for her family after her mother’s death, and requested that if Amruta wore the items she designed at a public event, they would be advertised.
The chargesheet, filed in Marathi, says that Aniksha then visited Amruta several times between March 2022 and January 2023, at Sagar Bungalow in Malabar Hill and at several events in Mumbai and Pune. She allegedly gave two to three dresses and a necklace to Amruta to wear at events, and shot videos of these meetings secretly on several days.
Aniksha then shot a video of herself filling a bag with Rs 1 crore and then pretended to bring the same bag to Sagar Bungalow. When Amruta was out of town, Aniksha dropped an envelope addressed to her, with names and other information of bookies.
On 27 January 2023, Aniksha then allegedly told Amruta that her father was providing information about the bookies to the police, and that Amruta could take a large amount of money from the bookies. When Amruta refused, Aniksha contacted her again in February 2023 on WhatsApp, saying that she had paid Amruta Rs 1 crore as bribe for using her husband’s position to prevent action against her father. Amruta then blocked Aniksha’s number.
Aniksha’s father then began sending the videos and photos to Amruta, allegedly blackmailing her and pretending that she had received bribe money and gifts from his daughter, and threatening to jeopardise her husband’s political career by sending the videos to opposing political parties. The duo also allegedly demanded Rs 10 crore from Amruta in exchange for deleting the videos, audios and messages.
All three accused got bail in 2023, but Anil came out of jail only in 2024 because he was in custody in other cases.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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