Former Zonal Director, NCB Mumbai, Sameer Wankhede on Saturday arrived at the CBI office for questioning in connection with the Aryan Khan drugs on cruise case. When reporters tried to speak with him, Wankhede said 'Satyameva Jayate' suggesting that he is true in what he has been saying and the truth will win in the end.
This comes after the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered no coercive action against Sameer Wankhede till May 22 in a corruption case related to the Cordelia cruise drug bust. Wankhede had filed a petition seeking the quashing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against him for allegedly demanding a Rs 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the drug bust case.
Crucial details keep emerging in the case months after Wankhede came into the limelight after Shah Rukh Khan's son was put behind bars in the drugs on cruise case. Recently, the purported conversations between Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and Sameer Wankhede were presented in court to support the latter's case. According to the chat logs, Shah Rukh Khan was observed appealing to Wankhede to treat his son Aryan Khan leniently when he was apprehended in connection with the cruise drug case.
The Mumbai High Court has received a document submitted by Wankhede, which reportedly contains a conversation between him and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.
Notably, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) did not name Aryan Khan in its charge sheet in the case because of a lack of evidence against him last year. Wankhede had offered to appear before the agency on Thursday after an FIR was registered against him and four others for allegedly trying to extort the bribe from Shah Rukh Khan on the basis of an NCB inquiry referred to it by the home ministry, PTI reported sources as saying.
PTI reported officials as saying that Wankhede did not appear for questioning on Thursday and the CBI will decide on the future course of action. The officials said a special enquiry team (SET) of the NCB had red-flagged several lapses and irregularities in the operation on the cruise ship conducted under the monitoring of Wankhede. The NCB had alleged K P Gosavi and his aide Prabhakar Sail, now deceased, were included as independent witnesses in the cruise ship raid on October 2, 2021, on the directions of Wankhede.