NewsX Exclusive: Devendra Fadnavis speaks on wife Amruta FIR controversy

“We complained to the police, got a forensic audit done, and came to know that the videos were edited,” Devendra Fadnavis told NewsX breaking his silence on controversy pertaining to his wife Amruta Fadnavis, on Saturday.

The controversy started after a designer allegedly tried to bribe her with Rs. 1 Cr in exchange for scrapping cases against her father Jaisinghani.

An FIR was filed at Malabar Police station on Amruta’s complaint against the girl identified as Aniksha, and her father. Amruta alleged that the girl and her father were trying to indirectly threaten her via videos, texts, and voice notes.

Speaking on the matter, Fadnavis said, “The level of politics is falling and this is an example. This controversy rose during MVA Government when a girl got close to my wife, then shot some videos, and then blackmailed her. There is extortion and blackmail too. But when you do nothing wrong, there is no reason to worry. We complained to the police, got a forensic audit done, and came to know that the video was edited. One video was shot claiming that the girl puts cash in her bag and then that bag is spotted with help in my house. The girl told my help that there are clothes in this bag. Fortunately, my help kept something in the bag. The forensic edit showed that the bag had no money and had clothes. Imagine if the bag was not opened, we would have had to run for clarifications.”

“We trust people and that could be our mistake too. The girl’s father is wanted for 17 cases in 4 states and they tried to trap us. What is condemnable is that when we were in opposition we could not help them. Work began to take their cases back also at that time began simultaneously during the trap. So there was a conspiracy,” the Deputy Minister of Maharashtra said while speaking to NewsX.

He added, “I won’t try to accuse anyone, but it’s both disappointing and a lesson when you try to work honestly, but people fall to new lows for politics.”

Jaisinghani, who has been charged with over 15 crimes including cheating, forgery, betting, and money laundering, has been arrested thrice and is presently on the run. The majority of these cases were filed between 2014 and 2019, during Fadnavis’ tenure as chief minister and state home minister.