Where's elusive bookie Jaisinghani: HC comes down on Mumbai Police

Bombay High Court. File Pic

The Bombay High Court recently slammed the Mumbai Police after going through the latter's progress report to find suspected bookie Anil Jaisinghani, absconding for the last two years in a forgery case registered with the Azad Maidan police.

Court rap
The court observed, "We have gone through the report. Prima facie, we are not satisfied with the progress in the investigation... We are also not satisfied with the reasons given for not apprehending the accused. We do not find any sincere efforts on part of the investigating officer for apprehending the accused. Reports show that proclamation under section 82 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, is already issued, calling upon the accused to remain present before the court on or before August 27.

The reports further show that if the accused does not remain present on the given date, action would be initiated against him under section 83 of the Code." Senior inspector Vasant Vakhare told mid-day, "The accused did not present himself before court and is still absconding. We are searching for him."

The invisible bookie
The serial offender has 16 cases registered against him in various police stations in Thane, Mumbai and four other states, including a PMLA case registered in March 2015 by the Ahmedabad ED.

After being on the run for eight months, he had filed an anticipatory bail application before the Bombay High Court for transit bail to approach the Gujarat High Court against an NBW issued against him in the case. For this, he had submitted a fake medical certificate in court. Later, the Azad Maidan police had taken the statement of the doctor whose name was on the medical certificate; after he'd confirmed that he had not issued the certificate, the police had booked Jaisinghani for forgery.

Since then, the police have failed to catch him. mid-day had reported that Jaisinghani was in touch with police officers through their landlines and cellphones, as revealed by call detail records recently submitted in HC by advocate Sanjana Pardeshi. Based on that, the court had appointed two top cops to look for Jaisinghani and file a report regarding the delay in the arrest.

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