Actor Shah Rukh Khan‘s manager Pooja Dadlani has sought more time, in response to the second summon issued to her by the Mumbai Police, in connection with the cruise ship drugs case in which the actor’s son, Aryan Khan, was recently arrested.
The Mumbai Police told ANI on Tuesday that “there could be the issuance of a third summon too”, while adding that so far 20 people have recorded their statements in the alleged extortion case involving Dadlani.
On October 3, Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (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 during the raid. Along with Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and fashion designer Munmun Dhamecha were also taken into NCB custody.
During the investigation, Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the case who claimed 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, had alleged that Gosavi, in a telephonic conversation, had discussed monetary pay-offs to be paid to senior NCB officer Sameer Wankhede, who was investigating the cruise ship case.
In an affidavit, Sail further said that he overheard a conversation of a Rs 18 crore deal between Gosavi and one Sam D’Souza on 3 October, of which Rs 8 Crore was alleged to be paid to Wankhede. Sail also said that Gosavi, D’Souza, and Dadlani, had a 15-minute meeting inside a car on the evening of the raid.
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However, D’Souza in a recent interview with NDTV stated that he had no knowledge of the alleged deal. Adding that he was in Delhi all this while and would soon record a statement in the matter with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that recently took over the case from Wankhede, the self-described ‘liaison man’ said he had only set up a face-to-face meeting between Gosavi and Dadlani.
D’Souza alleged that Gosavi contacted him on October 1, a day before the drugs raid, through Sunil Patil, a “power broker” with important connections. Hours after Aryan Khan’s arrest, D’Souza said, he met Gosavi, who told him no drugs were found on Khan and they could help him. Gosavi wanted to speak to Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, following which he set up a meeting between the two, D’Souza added.