The Bombay High Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on the bail application of Aryan Khan, accused in the drugs on cruise case, till tomorrow. Former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Aryan Khan today. A special court in Mumbai had on Wednesday refused to grant bail to Aryan and two others in connection with the seizure of drugs. Following this, Aryan Khan moved a bail application in the Bombay High Court against the NDPS court order on his bail rejection. On 21 October, the Bombay High Court said that it would hear Aryan Khan’s bail application on 26 October.
A five-member team of NCB will go from Delhi to Mumbai tomorrow to probe the allegations of corruption made by Prabhakar Sail, who is a witness in the drugs-on-cruise matter of Mumbai. Sources said the team will comprise DDG NCB Gyaneshwar Singh, along with four other NCB officers.
Meanwhile, an accused in the Mumbai drugs on cruise case, Manish Rajgaria, was granted bail by a city-based special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court on Tuesday. As per Rajgaria’s lawyer, Ajay Dubey, the court has granted his bail plea in the matter.
Rohatgi, appearing for Aryan Khan’s bail plea, on Tuesday said that Aryan Khan was invited to cruise as a special guest. “He (Aryan Khan) was invited to the cruise as a special guest. He was invited by Pratik Gaba who was like an organiser. He invited accused 1 Aryan and accused 2 Arbaz Merchant. Both were invited by the same person. They both landed up together at the cruise terminal,” Rohatgi said in the courtroom. Rohatgi further attributed NCB’s presence at the cruise to some prior information. “It appears that NCB had some prior information that people on this cruise were having drugs so they were present in a certain strength,” he stated. He said that nothing was recovered from Aryan Khan when searches were conducted. “My client, Arbaz and many others were apprehended. A search was conducted and nothing was recovered from Accused 1 (Aryan Khan). No medical at any point was conducted to ascertain if he has taken any drug,” he added.
Talking about the recovery of six grams of charas from Arbaz Merchant, Rohatgi said that Aryan Khan has no relation with him except for arriving with him there and there was no recovery of drugs from Aryan and no proof of consumption was reported.
NCB Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede reached the NCB office in the national capital on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Wankhede said, “I have not been summoned. I have come here for a different purpose. All the allegations against me are baseless.”
In a related development, NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede’s wife Kranti Redkar Wankhede on Tuesday dismissed the allegations posed by NCP leader Nawab Malik and questioned the credibility of the anonymous letter cited by the minister. Addressing the media, Kranti said, “Anyone can write these kinds of letters. Such letters have no merit. Malik’s allegations are all lies and if he has proof, he should produce it before the court. We cannot find anything by doing ‘Twitterbaaji’. Anyone can write anything on Twitter. I can also write on Twitter. Such letters, as shared by Nawab Malik, hold no relevance.” Reacting to Nawab Malik’s allegations of extortion and illegal phone tapping against the NCB official, Redkar said, “This all are false claims. My husband is not wrong. We will not tolerate this.”
She further said that her family is receiving death threats. “I have been given police protection as our family is receiving death threats. A lot of people may benefit if Sameer Wankhede is removed from his current post at NCB,” she said.
On Malick’s challenge to file criminal defamation case against him, Kranti said “Why should we go to court? Those levelling allegations against us should go to court. We are not ‘crorepatis’, we are simple people. The court is supreme, we cannot believe in hearsay. Sameer is an honest officer which is why many people wish that he should be removed.”
Speaking on the birth certificate of Wankhede, she called for more research by NCP and said that their research team is ‘fantastic’ so they should find the original certificate. “You can check the certificate of the entire village, of the whole Wankhede family. One person’s certificate may be forged but how can it be of the entire village. Yesterday daddy also showed and proofed that his caste is original. It seems to me that they haven’t researched properly. They should do more research. Their research team is fantastic so they should find the original certificate,” she said.
Meanwhile, NCB officer Sameer Wankhede’s sister Yasmeen said that “we are receiving death and threat calls”. “Who’s he (Nawab Malik) to look for a bureaucrat’s birth certificate? His research team calls a picture posted in Bombay from Dubai…We’re receiving death, threat calls. I feel I should also present false evidence every day,” said Yasmeen.
Earlier in the day, the Maharashtra minister said that he has received a letter from an unnamed NCB official alleging that a number of people have been framed in false cases by the anti-drugs agency. The Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister said that he is forwarding the letter to NCB Director General S.N. Pradhan, to include it in the agency’s probe into the cruise drug bust case involving Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan.
Malik said that the letter he received mentions 26 cases in which it is alleged that Sameer Wankhede “did not follow proper rules while investigating the matter”. Wankhede has, meanwhile, said that all the allegations were false. Malik had earlier also shared the birth certificate of Wankhede on Twitter saying “Sameer Dawood Wankhede’s fraud started from here.” Following this Wankhede said he will fight Malik legally.