The National Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is said to have found no evidence of an attempt to extort money from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in order to release his son Aryan Khan. Aryan was arrested by the NCB’s Mumbai unit in the notorious drugs-on-cruise case. Director-General S N Pradhan ordered a vigilance inquiry after witness Prabhakar Sail NSE 0.75 percent said in an affidavit and subsequent media encounters that Rs 25 crore was reportedly asked for Aryan’s release.
Aryan Khan, who was apprehended during the Cordelia cruise searches on October 2 and spent 22 days in jail, was given a clean chit by the agency last week owing to a ‘lack of solid evidence’. He claimed that he overheard K P Gosavi, his employer and a witness in the case, speaking over the phone with a man named Sam D’souza.
According to officials, Sail, 40, died in April after a heart attack. The agency labeled him a hostile witness after he made the accusations. On October 3, 2021, Sail saw Gosavi and Sam with Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani in her blue Mercedes parked in Mumbai’s Lower Parel neighborhood. He said in his statement that he grabbed two bags, which he later learned had Rs 38 lakh in cash. While Wankhede has denied any wrongdoing, Gosavi is now being held in a Pune prison in connection with an alleged fraud case brought by the Maharashtra Police.
Vigilance investigation determined that the allegation of extortion from Aryan Khan’s family was false because there was no physical or technical evidence corroborating the allegation. All those named in the alleged conspiracy issued statements denying any such threat or bribe demand being made by the investigators or any other linked person. The vigilance inquiry team is said to have questioned and recorded the statements of ‘all the stakeholders’.
NCB also obtained CCTV video of locales such as Lower Parel, Mantralaya (Maharashtra state secretariat), Tardeo Road, spots surrounding Trident Hotel, and Vashi where Sail allegedly traded ‘currency’. The investigation is also said to have discovered ‘glaring procedural errors’ in the nomination of some witnesses. In addition, there are other procedural flaws during and after the raid at Mumbai’s international cruise terminal. The final report of this vigilance investigation, led by NCB deputy director-general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh, is anticipated to be submitted to DG Pradhan soon.
A special investigation team that re-investigated the whole drugs-on-cruise case has cleared Aryan Khan and five others due to a lack of solid evidence. The nearly 6,000-page criminal complaint filed accused 14 people of various violations of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). This SIT was formed by the NCB head in the aftermath of the cruise raids and subsequent action by the Mumbai NCB branch, which sparked controversy. The SIT determined that the NCB Mumbai operation had several ‘grave irregularities’ and that they were reportedly only aiming to ‘implicate’ Aryan Khan in this matter. The NCB stated that the original arrests and investigation by the team led by Wankhede were poor and had numerous evident breaches.
Sail told the SIT that Gosavi forced him to sign blank sheets and that he did not observe any narcotics being confiscated. Pradhan gave tight directions to his NCB officers shortly after taking over as DG in July last year. He wanted them to conduct professional, evidence-based, and quality investigations into narcotics cases. The Director-General (DG) in Pakistan has asked his investigators to ensure that they do not get involved in minor drug trafficking cases and instead focus on major investigations. He has told them to stay away from minor cases and only assist local police in such investigations.
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