News Analysis India

Tag: Cruise drug case

  • Aryan Khan cruise drugs case: Alleged middle man Sunil Patil names BJP leader as master-mind 

    By Express News Service

    MAHARASHTRA: Sunil Patil, the alleged middle man in the cruise drugs case involving Aryan Khan, has claimed that he has no connection with Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer, Sameer Wankhede and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

    BJP leader Mohit Kamboj had earlier alleged that the Aryan Khan’s drug case master-mind is Sunil Patil who is connected with NCP. Sunil Patil clarified that he had no connection with Aryan Khan’s case and NCP.

    “The real master-mind behind Aryan Khan case is BJP leader Manish Bhanushali, Dhiraj Bhanushali, Niraj Yadav, and Sam Desouza. The tip-off of the rave party at the cruise ship was given by Niraj Yadav from Madhya Pradesh who is close to senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya. When this case happened, I was not in Mumbai. I was away in Ahmedabad for my personal work,” Sunil Patil claimed.

    Patil also alleged that Manish Bhanushali who is a witness in the Aryan Khan case threatened him in a Delhi hotel.

    “I was in Ahmedabad, but Manish Bhanushali and Dhiraj Bhanushali called me to Delhi and pressurized that I should record the video message in favour of NCB. When I refused to do so, they beat me up badly. They even told me that they have big connections which would help them come out from this crisis,” Patil alleged.

    Sunil Patil further alleged, “Since I left the NCP in 2016, I was working separately. Initially, Sam Desouza shared the tip of the rave party on Cruise with me and told me to ask the Maharashtra government to conduct the raid but I refused saying he has no relation with anyone in this regard.”

    Patil also said that he is ready to record his statement before the police and any investigation agency. Patil is a resident of Dhule.

  • Mumbai police set up team for inquiry into ‘extortion bid’ in Aryan case

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Mumbai Police has deputed police officers for enquiry into complaints of alleged extortion against NCB officers including zonal director Sameer Wankhede in the drugs bust case involving Aryan Khan, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

    Police are conducting inquiry into four complaints, filed by independent witness in the NCB case Prabhakar Sail, lawyers Sudha Dwivedi and Kanishka Jain, and Nitin Deshmukh, he said.

    All the complaints have been clubbed together. On Tuesday and Wednesday, police recorded Sail’s statement. Dilip Sawant, Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) will supervise the enquiry and DCP Hemrajsingh Bagul will assist him as supervisory officer.

    Assistant Commissioner of Police Milind Khetle, Police Inspector Ajay Sawant, Assistant PI Shrikant Karkar and Sub Inspector Prakash Gawali will be part of the enquiry team. The order of enquiry was issued by Vishwas Nangre Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).

  • Witness Sail stands by allegation of extortion attempt in Aryan Khan drugs case

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the alleged drugs case involving Aryan Khan, said on Wednesday that he stood by his allegation of extortion demand against NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede and others, and nobody had tutored him.

    Wankhede has already denied the allegation. Speaking to reporters here, Sail showed some chats on a mobile phone where K P Gosavi, another witness in the case, purportedly asked him to collect the extortion money from Haji Ali.

    ALSO READ: Aryan Khan to spend another night in jail, HC to resume bail plea hearing on Wednesday

    “I have narrated everything chronologically and nothing is made-up. Nobody is asking me to speak about this issue,” Sail said. “I don’t have any relations with any politician. I am a 40-year-old man and do not have a single case registered against me,” he said, denying allegations that he was going to get some quid-pro-quo for levelling the allegations.

    Sail has also sent an application to Mumbai Police claiming that he had overheard Gosavi talking to one Sam D’Souza over the phone about a demand of Rs 25 crore including Rs 8 crore for Sameer Wankhede.

    ALSO READ: Aryan Khan not just drug consumer, but also involved in trafficking, tampering with evidence, says NCB to HC

    Earlier this month, a team led by Wankhede raided a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai and claimed to have recovered drugs. They arrested Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan along with others in the case.

  • Cruise drug case: NCB’s Sameer Wankhede reaches Delhi, says he has come for a ‘different purpose’

    By ANI

    NEW DELHI: Amid allegation of payoff in the drugs case involving Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Monday reached Delhi.

    While speaking to the media here, Wankhede said, “I have not been summoned. I have come here for a different purpose. All the allegations against me are baseless.”

    ALSO READ: Did man behind Aryan Khan’s arrest Sameer Wankhede forge caste certificate to get job?

    Earlier in the day, Wankhede had in a special court said that he and his family were being targeted and are ready for a probe into allegations against him. Two affidavits have been filed in the case — one by NCB and another by Wankhede.

    Wankhede and Maharastra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik are at loggerheads over the investigation of the drugs-on-cruise case in Mumbai.

    Earlier, the Maharashtra minister had put an allegation of extortion on Wankhede while challenging the NCB official that he will lose his job within a year.

    ALSO READ: Video showing absconding witness KP Gosavi recording Aryan Khan goes viral

    Malik had 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.

    An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship which was on its way to Goa at mid-sea on October 2. A total of 20 people, including Aryan Khan, have been arrested so far in the case.

  • Aryan victimised because he is Shah Rukh Khan’s son: Digvijaya; BJP says stop appeasement politics

    By PTI

    BHOPAL: Senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh, on Saturday alleged Aryan Khan, arrested by the NCB in connection with a drugs case in Mumbai, is being victimised because he is the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

    Taking a swipe, BJP said Singh was playing the politics of “appeasement”. Aryan Khan (23) was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 3 following a raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.

    Currently in jail, Aryan on Wednesday moved the Bombay High Court after a special court rejected his bail application. The HC will hear his bail plea on October 26. “It is sad Shah Rukh’s son is being victimised for being his son. What is his crime? Someone accompanying him had 5 grams of drugs with him!! What about Tonnes of Heroin seized at Mundra Port? Who is Kuldeep Singh? Would NCB and now NIA investigating this case please tell us?,” Digvijaya Singh said in a tweet in English on Saturday morning.

    Nearly 3,000 kg of heroin was seized from two containers at the Mundra Port in Gujarat by the DRI last month.

    The drug haul is considered to be one of the biggest in the world with the value of the seized heroin estimated to be Rs 21,000 crore in the international markets.

    Hitting back at Digvijaya, the Madhya Pradesh BJP said the Congress leader has delivered a verdict without waiting for the court.

    “Finally, Digvijay Singh came to the rescue of Aryan Khan. The matter is right now sub-judice, the investigating agency is checking the facts but he (Singh) has given his verdict! After all, for how long will you continue to mislead people by doing politics of appeasement?” the BJP asked.

    Talking to PTI, BJP legislator Rameshwar Sharma said Singh should have faith in the country’s judiciary. “Congress and Digvijay Singh misused the law and always believed in such acts. But the law doesn’t distinguish people based on faith. This is not a Hindu-Muslim issue and Digvijay Singh should change his mindset now,” he said.

    Sharma said nobody had a personal enmity with Shah Rukh Khan or his son as the people have made him star by watching his movies.

  • Cruise drugs case: Special court refuses bail to Aryan Khan

    By PTI

    A special court here on Wednesday refused to grant bail to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and two others in connection with the seizure of banned drugs on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast.

    Special Judge V V Patil, designated to hear cases related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, rejected the bail pleas of Aryan Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and fashion model Munmun Dhamecha.

    Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 3 for alleged conspiracy, possession, consumption, purchase and trafficking of drugs.

    The trio is presently in judicial custody.

    While Aryan Khan and Merchant are lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai, Dhamecha is lodged at the Byculla women’s prison here.

    Aryan Khan and others accused in the case have been booked for offences under Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of the NDPS Act.