The Mumbai Cruise drug case has taken another turn. Prabhakar Sail, a witness, alleged that a deal was struck with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials for Rs 25 crore to release Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has been arrested in the case. In his confession, Prabhakar alleged that he had agreed to extort Rs 8 crore from NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
He said the same thing to the media on Sunday. Private Detective KP Prabhakar, who claims to be Goswami’s personal bodyguard, was present at the time of the October 2 attack on the cruise ship. With this, the NCB included Goswami and Prabhakar as witnesses and interrogated them. KP Goswami was talking on the phone with a man named Sam D’Souza when he was in the same car and told him that dramatic developments had taken place after the arrests. After that, Prabhakar said, he discussed the deal with Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani in the car for 15 minutes.
He alleged that NCB officials forced him to sign nine to ten blank papers. Aryan Khan’s selfie with KP Goswami, on the other hand, went viral on social media. With Goswami now missing and police issuing lookout notices against him, the case looks set to take an even more unexpected turn. It is learned that Aryan Khan, who was arrested on October 3, is currently lodged in the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. His bail petition will come up for hearing in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday.
NCB sources have revealed that NCB Director Sameer Wankhede has denied all the false allegations made by Prabhakar. Wankhede warned that they would respond appropriately. The sources said that the witness had turned a blind eye and was making these allegations to tarnish the image of the NCB, adding that there were CCTV cameras in the office and no such meeting had taken place.
Shiv Sena senior leader Sanjay Routh has said that the allegations that the NCB demanded conspiracy to release Shiv Sena fire Aryan Khan are shocking. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said in a tweet that the cases were filed to tarnish the image of Maharashtra.
Along with this tweet, Sanjay Routh shared a video clipping. The video shows Goswami holding a phone (turned on the speaker) at the NCB office in which Aryan Khan is seen talking to someone. Routh demanded that the Maharashtra police conduct an inquiry into the conspiracy. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik demanded an SIT probe into NCB zonal chief Sameer Wankhede. Already the Maharashtra government has been a frequent critic of the NCB in this case.