A preliminary investigation was started by the Mumbai police after extortion allegations were levelled against Narcotics Control Bureau’s Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede in the cruise ship drug case in which Aryan Khan was arrested, reported ANI.
The investigation on Wankhede comes after Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the case claiming to be the personal bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi, the private investigator who was seen in the viral selfie with Aryan Khan at the NCB office, alleged that Gosavi had discussed monetary pay-offs to Wankhede in a telephone conversation. Sail said he overheard a conversation about a Rs 18 crore deal between Gosavi and one Sam D’Souza on October 3, of which Rs 8 crore was allegedly to be paid to Wankhede.
Wankhede is already facing a vigilance inquiry ordered by the Narcotics Control Bureau. However, the anti-drug agency’s Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh said that Wankhede will continue to remain the investigating officer in the cruise ship drugs case unless substantial evidence is found against him, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, Gosavi, who denied the extortion allegations made by Sail and said he would surrender outside of Maharashtra, was detained by the Pune city police in another case.
According to ANI, Gosavi was nabbed on the grounds that someone had lodged an FIR against him at the Faraskhana police station in 2018 for allegedly committing fraud by promising the person a job in Malaysia and taking money for the same.
Gosavi had been missing for the past few days, ever since his selfie with Khan went viral.
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Sail and Gosavi are both panch witnesses (independent witnesses) in the case of the seizure of contraband from Khan’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.
Khan was arrested on October 3 by the NCB during the raid of a cruise ship 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 Merchant and fashion designer Munmun Dhamecha.