The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has started recording the statement of the agency's Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede in connection with the departmental vigilance probe into allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case.
While speaking to reporters, DDG NCB Gyaneshwar Singh, who is a part of the 5-member team that is probing the allegations of corruption, said that Wankhede's statement is being taken.
According to reports, the vigilance probe team, which landed in Mumbai earlier in the day, has started its probe and collected some documents and recordings from the NCB office in Ballard Estate in south Mumbai.
"We have started recording the statement of Wankhede. It is a sensitive inquiry and it is not possible to share real-time information related to the probe," Singh told the media persons.
"We have started our investigation and are calling witnesses to record their statements," he added.
The development comes after NCB ordered a vigilance inquiry into the corruption allegations made by a witness Prabhakar Sail in the cruise drugs case. Sail accused some NCB officials of extortion of Rs 25 crore, including Wankhede, to let off Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan.
Besides recording Wankhede's statement, the special team will also be summoning a 'Panch-Witness' Prabhakar Sail for the probe.
At least four complaints lodged against Wankhede in different police stations in Mumbai will now be handled by the ACP who will investigate and prepare his report on the matter.
So far, two independent probes follow the series of allegations against Wankhede coming vide Sail's affidavit of October 23, besides the serial exposes undertaken by Nationalist Congress Party Minister Nawab Malik over the past three weeks.
Malik has also accused the Wankhede of alleged links with the international drug mafia and demanded a probe.