On Monday, the Bombay High Court rejected the plea of bookie Anil Jaisinghani, who claimed that he was illegally arrested in a case filed against him by Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Justice AS Gadkari and PK Naik passed the order. Amruta Fadnavis accused Anil’s daughter, Aniksha Jaisinghani, of attempting to bribe her with Rs 1 Crore to seek her help in a criminal case involving Anil Jaisinghani. It is also alleged that they tried to extort Rs 10 Crores from her.
Anil Jaisinghani, along with his cousin Nirmal Jaisinghani, was arrested in Gujarat and remanded to police custody until March 27, 2023. The petition filed by the duo states that they were arrested on March 19 at Godhra at 11:45 PM and produced before the magistrate on March 21. The petition claims that there was a deliberate delay in producing them before the magistrate and that the police officials did not comply with the mandatory provisions of the CrPC.
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According to Mrigendra Singh, the lawyer representing the petitioners, they were not produced before the magistrate within the stipulated 24 hours of arrest as mandated by section 167 of the CrPC. Both petitioners were produced before the magistrate after 36 hours of their arrest, he added. The duo claimed that the FIR filed by Fadnavis was concocted to falsely implicate Anil Jaisinghani. The petition also alleges that the police did not comply with sections 41 and 41A of the CrPC while making the arrests.
Section 41 outlines the circumstances under which a person can be arrested by the police without a warrant. Section 41-A states that if the arrest of a person is not necessary under Section 41(1), the police must issue a notice to the person against whom a complaint has been made or credible information has been received, or reasonable suspicion exists that they have committed a cognizable offence, to appear before the police officer. As long as the person continues to comply with the notice, they cannot be arrested unless the police officer deems it necessary and records the reasons for the arrest.
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Mrigendra Singh argued that his client was arrested by the Gujarat police because it was a political matter and everything was being monitored by the complainant’s husband, who is the state’s home minister. He said that there was a pending case against Anil in Ahmedabad for two years and instead of producing him before a magistrate there, the Gujarat police handed him over to the Mumbai police. Singh further argued that transit remand was not obtained from the nearest magistrate.
However, Advocate General Birendra Saraf presented a detailed chart justifying the arrest. He explained that the duo could only be produced before a magistrate who had jurisdiction to hear the matter and not before any magistrate, and therefore their arrest was not illegal. He stated that Anil was brought to Mumbai at 2:20 PM on March 20, arrested at 5 PM, and produced before the court at 11 AM on March 21. “As long as I produce him before a magistrate, excluding time for travel, there can be no grievance,” Saraf added.
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