Sameer Wankhede testifies in front of NCB in Delhi

On Sunday, Sameer Wankhede, the former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, testified before a departmental vigilance panel investigating allegations of extortion against the agency that conducted the drugs-on-cruise raid that resulted in the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan and others.

Wankhede submitted his version of events and official documents linked to the raid before NCB Deputy Director General (DDG) for the northern area Gyaneshwar Singh, according to official sources. The raid took place in October last year at the international cruise terminal in Mumbai.

He and his NCB Mumbai team had previously testified before the vigilance panel, and it is known that the recent deposition is part of the procedure to wrap up the investigation, after which the DDG will submit a report to the NCB Director-General.

Singh, a Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS officer from the 1999 batch, was tasked with leading the investigation after Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise drugs case, filed an affidavit alleging that some NCB Mumbai officials and others offered an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore in exchange for letting Aryan Khan off the hook in the case.

This case resulted in the arrest of twenty people, all of whom, including Aryan Khan, has been released on bail.

Sail said that he overheard that a 'bribe' of Rs 8 crore was to be paid to Wankhede from this money.

Sail was the bodyguard of K P Gosavi, a private citizen and another witness in this case, who is now in prison after being arrested by the Pune Police in a fraud case. After the NCB cruise raid, Gosavi was arrested by the police, and the vigilance panel would question him in jail before releasing its final report.

Sail further stated that after the Cordelia cruise raid, Gosavi met with Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani and was instructed to sign "9-10 blank papers" in front of Wankhede.

Wankhede claimed that all proper processes were followed during the operation and that the claims were concocted to deter him from taking tough action against high-profile drug traffickers.

Other members of the NCB Mumbai team involved in the case also testified before the DDG Singh-led panel this week, according to sources.

Last year, Singh and his team visited Mumbai to undertake an on-the-spot investigation, questioning and recording statements from all parties involved, including Wankhede, his NCB Mumbai team, Sail, Aryan Khan, and others. The NCB case documents and the seizure memo were also taken by the vigilance team.

During the NCB raids, Gosavi's close closeness and images with Aryan Khan raised doubts, and the situation is being investigated by the department's vigilance unit.

Wankhede's time with the NCB came to an end last month after he was not awarded an extension by the federal anti-narcotics agency. He was an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer from the 2008 batch. His services were then made available to his parent company, DRI.

From August 31, 2020, the 42-year-old officer served as the head or zonal director of the NCB Mumbai unit, where he investigated a number of drug cases, including the one involving actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death and the one that led to the arrest of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law.

Also read: Punjab cm nephew residence raided