MUMBAI: Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer, Sameer Wankhede, who is accused of allegedly demanding Rs 25 crore as a bribe for not framing Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case, on Saturday alleged that he was being punished for being a patriot.
Wankhede's statement came in response to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids raiding his residence and other premises on Friday.
Wankhede alleged that 18 CBI officials yesterday raided his house while his wife and children were present in his house. "I am getting rewarded for being a patriot, yesterday 18 CBI officials raided my residence and searched it for more than 12 hours while my wife and children were present in the house. They found Rs 23,000 and four property papers. These assets were acquired before I joined the service," said Wankhede, as quoted by ANI.
Wankhede further claimed that CBI officials also took the phone of his wife Kranti Redkar in their possession.
On May 12, the CBI registered a case against Sameer Wankhede and three others in connection with a corruption case related to the Aryan Khan drugs-on-cruise case.
According to reports, the CBI had received information that Sameer Wankhede and his accomplice allegedly collected Rs 50 lakhs as advance to not frame Aryan Khan in the drug case.
The CBI on May 12 had also conducted searches at 29 locations in Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow, Guwahati and Chennai after filing the FIR against the 2008-batch IRS officer Wankhede and four others -- then NCB Superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, Intelligence Officer Ashish Ranjan and two private persons K P Gosavi and Sanvile D'Souza -- in the case.
The official statement reads thus, "It has been alleged that the said officials of Narcotics Control Bureau of Mumbai Zone, in order to obtain undue advantage from the persons/ others in the Case No. 94/2021 of Mumbai Zone, earlier registered & investigated under the supervision of then Zonal Director of Mumbai Zone of NCB, had entered into criminal conspiracy with others and had allegedly obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused of Case No. 94/2021 of NCB Mumbai Zone."
The probe agency alleged the NCB, Mumbai Zone had received information in October, 2021 related to the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on a private cruise ship.
"It has also been alleged that the said persons entered into conspiracy in order to extort an amount of Rs 25 crore (approx) from family members of the alleged accused of the case No.94/2021 of NCB, Mumbai, by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of narcotics substances as per the alleged directions of then zonal director (Wankhede) being the supervisory officer," a CBI spokesperson told PTI.
Wankhede had raided Cordelia Cruise and arrested Aryan Khan in an alleged drug case.
Aryan Khan, who was formally arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28, 2021 after spending 25 days in jail.
The NCB on May 27, 2022 also filed a 6,000-page charge sheet against 14 accused, giving a clean chit to Aryan Khan.
NCB officials said Aryan Khan and five others were not named in the agency's charge sheet due to "lack of sufficient evidence".
Wankhede, who headed the Narcotics Control Bureau Zonal Unit in Mumbai at the time of Aryan Khan's arrest, was transferred to the DG Taxpayer Service Directorate in Chennai in May last year.
The much-hyped case took a twist when an 'independent witness' had claimed in 2021 that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and other persons, including a witness Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan.
Prabhakar Sail, the 'independent witness', now deceased, had told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling D'Souza over the phone about the demand of Rs 25 crore after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office after the October 2 raid.
He also claimed NCB officials had asked him to sign nine to ten blank papers.
However, a senior NCB official had denied the allegations, terming them as "completely false and malicious".
(With PTI, ANI inputs)