Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise ship drug bust case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan‘s son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has alleged that senior NCB officer Sameer Wankhede was aiming for a pay-off in the case.
Sail, in an affidavit also said that he was forced to sign around 10 blank papers as a ‘panch’ or independent witness at the NCB office in Mumbai, in connection with the case, Live Law reported.
Sail said that he is the personal bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi, the private investigator who was seen in the viral selfie with Aryan Khan at the NCB office. He has alleged that he was present in the car during a telephonic conversation between Gosavi and one Sam D’Souza, discussing monetary pay-offs to be paid to Wankhede, NCB Zonal Director, Mumbai Unit and the officer leading investigations in the case.
“KP Gosavi was talking to Sam on the phone and stated that you put a bomb of 25 crores and let’s settle at 18 final because we have to give 8 crores to Sameer Wankhede,” Sail said in the affidavit. He also alleged that in the NCB office, post Khan’s arrest, he was asked to sign on 10 blank papers.
Sail and Gosavi are both panch witnesses (independent witnesses) in the case to the seizure of contraband from Aryan’s friend and co-accused in the case, Arbaaz Merchant. According to Section 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the officer in charge of searching or inspection “shall call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants” as witnesses.
He further stated that post Gosavi’s telephonic conversation, he had seen Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, Pooja Dadlani, talking to Gosavi. “After a few minutes one blue colour Mercedes came to the spot and I saw Pooja Dadjani come in the car. Sam, K P Gosavi, and Pooja Dadlani sat in the Mercedes and started talking. Then we all left after 15 min…”
“….We reached Vashi and immediately KP told me to take Innova car and go to Tardeo signal near Indiana hotel and collect 50 lakhs cash. I reached around 9:45 a.m. at the said place where one white colour car no 5102 came and gave me 2 bags filled with cash. Which I took to Vashi at his home and gave it to Kiran Gosavi”, the affidavit states.
The bag had only 38 lakhs, Sail further stated.
Gosavi has been missing ever since his selfie with Khan went viral and politicians and social media questioned what a private investigator was doing at the scene of an NCB raid.
According to Scroll.in, during a press conference, Nationalist Congress Party’s Nawab Malik alleged that Manish Bhanushali, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Gosavi, a private detective had taken part in the cruise ship raids and questioned if the NCB has the authority to “allow private citizens to take part in raids or to take their help for such operations.”
Sail said that he is now scared for this life. “NCB officials may kill me or abduct me like Gosavi…As seen in the big cases, witnesses often are killed or taken away and therefore I want to state the truth.”
Wankhede has denied all the allegations made against him in the affidavit and NCB Deputy Director-General informed through a press release that the document has been forwarded to the NCB Director General for “further necessary action”.
“Our zonal director, Mumbai Zonal Unit, Mr. Sameer Wankhede has categorically denied these allegations. As some of the contents of the affidavit relate to vigilance matters, I am hereby by forwarding the affidavit to Director General Narcotics Control Bureau and requesting him for further necessary action,” the release stated.
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After the affidavit was made public, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut took to Twitter to share a video that Prabhakar Sail has claimed was shot by him on the night Aryan Khan was arrested and taken to the NCB office. Terming Sail’s allegation that he was made to sign on a blank paper as shocking, Raut said that the Mumbai police should take suo moto cognisance of these allegations.
Khan was arrested on October 3 by the NCB during a cruise ship drug raid based on a tip-off. The agency allegedly seized 13 gm of cocaine, 21 gm of charas or hashish, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), 5 gm mephedrone, and cash worth Rs 1.33 lakh, and Khan was taken into NCB custody, along with a few others, including his friend Arbaaz Merchant and fashion designer Munmun Dhamecha.
His bail hearing at the Mumbai High Court is set to happen on Tuesday.