Gujarat betting case: Anil Jaisinghani earned ₹3.4cr by referring clients to other bookies: ED

According to the chargesheet filed in a special PMLA court in Gujarat, out of the ₹3.4 crore, Jaisinghani allegedly received around ₹2 crore in cash while the rest was in the bank accounts of his family members/entities, whose source he could not explain to the ED. Jaisinghani is named as Accused Number 12 in the chargesheet.

MUMBAI: Bookie Anil Jaisinghani had allegedly received ₹3.4 crore as his commission for referring clients to the operators of a betting racket, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed in its chargesheet into the ₹2,500 crore inter-state hawala/betting network, which was operated from Gujarat.

Kalyan, India - March 16, 2023: Anil Jaisinghani and Akshan Anil Jaisinghani - The Malabar Hill police reached the residence of Aniksha Jaisinghani around 8 am, after an interrogation of about 6 hours she was taken to Mumbai, while her brother Akshan who was also present complained of illness followed by which he was taken to a nearby hospital, in Kalyan, India, on Thursday, March 16, 2023. (Photo by Pramod Tambe/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

Jaisinghani was arrested in February for allegedly threatening and blackmailing Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Anil’s daughter Anishka, a designer, was also arrested for allegedly offering a bribe to Amruta.

According to a chargesheet filed by the police early this month, Amruta had promised Jaisinghani that she would speak to her husband to help him out if the cases registered against him were false, as he had claimed.

According to the chargesheet filed in a special PMLA court in Gujarat, out of the ₹3.4 crore, Jaisinghani allegedly received around ₹2 crore in cash while the rest was in the bank accounts of his family members/entities, whose source he could not explain to the ED. Jaisinghani is named as Accused Number 12 in the chargesheet.

“It was evident that Anil Jaisinghani earned approximately ₹1.54 crore from his partnership with Paresh V Asarpota. In total, they earned ₹3.08cr in which both had 50% share, through commissions for referring clients to ‘Maruti Ahmedabad,” stated the chargesheet.

The chargesheet alleged that Jaisinghani had earned approximately ₹50lakh from another bookie, Surinder Mandi alias Delhi Mandi, for referring clients to him for cricket betting.

“In addition to the above ₹2.04 crore, Jaisinghani received from the bookies, he also received around ₹1.36 crore from betting activities, which is reflected in the form of cash deposits in his wife’s/entity’s bank accounts. the source of which, Jaisinghani could not explain during statements under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002,” the chargesheet added.

The chargesheet stated that Jaisinghani was allegedly involved in illegal betting racket since long and had been on the run for the past eight years and not available for investigation in the case by the agency.

The alleged proceeds of crime were allegedly utilised by him for various purposes including purchase of immovable property. He bought the property, either through direct cash payments or routing the cash through other’s entities in the garb of loan payments taken by the bank for inculcating the ill-gotten money in the economy, according to the chargesheet.

“The ED’s money laundering probe had begun after an input led to searches, on March 19, 2015, of a Vadodara farmhouse on suspicions that it was the hub of largescale betting/hawala racket in international cricket. It was allegedly being operated through a United Kingdom-based website — Betfair — in contravention of Foreign Exchange Management Act regulations,” an ED source said.

Some witnesses examined in the probe revealed that Jaisinghani was the Mumbai-based partner of a key bookie under the probe’s scanner. Later, the agency registered a money-laundering case to identify the proceeds of the crime and its recipients, the sources said.

The ED chargesheet stated that other accused in the case, Girish alias Tommy Patel, Kirankumar Mala, Dharmin Chauhan and Chirag Parikh had allegedly “formed a partnership firm, Maruti Ahmedabad, by an oral agreement for carrying on the activity of cricket match satta betting activity (speculation) for their own financial benefits.”

It added that the four co-accused had allegedly taken on rent a farmhouse and they, alongwith a man employed by the firm, watched the live broadcasts of international cricket matches through mobile phones and the UK website.

Jaisinghani rejected all allegations of betting/wrongdoing against him. “Regarding his role as a cricket bookie, he (Jaisinghani) was in denial and upon confrontation with the statements of Paresh V Asarpota, he denied the facts stated by him. Regarding the source of amounts, for purchase of properties, he was evasive and stated that he took money from him father, wife and other relatives,” the chargesheet stated.