MUMBAI: A day after a witness in the cruise ship drugs case claimed that some NCB officials sought Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan to let his son Aryan off the hook, the agency ordered a high-level vigilance probe into it.
Prabhakar Sail, who is witness No 1 in the case, had said in his affidavit that NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede’s middle man Sam D’Souza and absconding witness K P Gosavi had demanded the money from the actor.
Prabhakar, the personal bodyguard of Gosavi, also alleged that Wankhede got him to sign on 10 blank papers.
NCB’s vigilance unit head Gyaneshwar Singh will lead the member team that will probe allegations of extortion.
The team, also comprising two inspector-level officers, will record the statements of Wankhede and others. It will also analyse the evidence given by Sail and submit its report to the DG of NCB.
“We will check the facts of the case before taking a decision over Sameer Wankhede’s suspension,” said Gyaneshwar Singh.
According to Sail’s affidavit, Gosavi and D’souza demanded Rs 25 crore from SRK at the behest of Wankhede. He said they were ready to settle at Rs 18 crore, out of which Rs 8 crore was given to Wankhede and the rest would be distributed between them.
Following the explosive charges, the Maharashtra government on Monday decided to give security to Sail.
Meanwhile Gosavi, who had gone missing, surfaced on Monday to deny the allegation levelled by Sail. Gosavi said there is a threat to his life in Mumbai but he can’t trust the Mumbai police.
Therefore, he said he will surrender in Uttar Pradesh.
After remaining untraceable for several days, Gosavi, who is facing a cheating case in Pune, spoke to TV news channels from an undisclosed location and dubbed the extortion claims made by Sail as false and baseless.
Gosavi, said to be a "private investigator" whose photos and videos with Aryan Khan went viral on social media after the NCB's raid on the cruise ship off the Mumbai coast, told the channels he will surrender shortly before the police in Lucknow.
Asked why he was surrendering in Lucknow when the drugs case, in which he is a witness, has been filed in Mumbai and the cheating case, in which he is an accused, in Pune, Gosavi told channels he feels "threatened" in the financial capital and does not trust the Maharashtra police.
Gosavi was apparently present during the cruise ship raid and was seen at the NCB office, when Aryan Khan was taken there.
His selfies and videos with Aryan Khan have appeared on social media.
Gosavi has been called an "independent witness" by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is probing the drugs case in which nearly 20 people have been arrested so far.
Sail has claimed he saw Gosavi meeting Shah Rukh Khan's manager and that he was asked to sign "9-10 blank pages" in the presence of NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede after the cruise raid.
Sail told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D'Souza over the phone, after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office following the October 2 raid on the cruise ship, about a demand of Rs 25 crore and "to settle at Rs 18 crore as they have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede".
Sail has said he would soon release evidence to support his claim.
The NCB and Wankhede rubbished the extortion-related claims in their affidavits submitted to a special court on Monday.
The special court, however, said it cannot pass a blanket order barring courts from taking cognizance of Sail's affidavit.
Meanwhile, at least two teams of the Pune Police fanned out to trace Gosavi who is wanted in connection with a 2018 cheating case registered against him, an official said on Monday.
The Pune Police have already arrested Gosavi's assistant Sherbano Kureshi in connection with the cheating case filed by one Chinmay Deshmukh who had alleged that Gosavi cheated him of Rs 3.09 lakh under the pretext of providing him with a job in Malaysia in the hotel industry.
Kureshi had received the money in her account.
The Pune Police had issued a lookout circular to prevent Gosavi from leaving the country.
Talking about some media reports stating that Gosavi wanted to surrender before the Pune Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police Priyanka Narnavare said he had not yet approached them.
On his part, Wankhede had approached a sessions court with the plea that no action be taken on Sail’s allegations.
However, the court rejected it saying the matter is already in the high court. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that D’souza does money laundering for Wankhede.
Malik ‘casts’ doubt over Wankhede’s background
“So far, Nawab Malik has ran the show. I will now take over from him in exposing the wrongdoing of NCB and its officers step by step,” Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said.
NCP minister Nawab Malik levelled another allegation on Monday that Wankhede is Muslim by birth so he is not entitled to avail of the benefit in the reserved category that he had done for his civil service.
Sharing the birth certificate of Wankhede, Malik said that Sameer’s father name is Dawood K Wankhede while his mother’s name is Zabida Begum Bano.
He said Wankhede got married to Shabana Khureshi in 2006 and has two daughters.
Then, he got divorced and got married to small-time Marathi actress Kranti Redkar.
“If the person is Muslim, how come he can avail the scheduled class reserved category benefits? This is nothing but forgery and cheating. We will move court against cheating the government and snatching one seat of reserved category persons in the civil services,” Malik said.
However, Wankhede denied the allegations saying this is part of a malicious campaign against him by the NCP minister.
Wankhede’s spouse Kranti Redkar defended her husband saying truth will prevail.
Wankhede said the minister’s act of publishing his personal information on Twitter was “defamatory in nature and unnecessary invasion of his family’s privacy”.
Dawood Wankhede?
NCP minister Nawab Malik on Monday alleged that Wankhede is Muslim by birth and that his father is Dawood K Wankhede and mother is Zabida Begum Bano.
(With PTI Inputs)