Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected a plea for anticipatory bail by Sam D’souza, whose name has come up in connection with the Cordelia cruise drugs case.

“The applicant has preferred the application without approaching sessions court and therefore it is rejected,” said Justice Surendra Tavade. He heard a plea by Sanville D’souza, alias Sam D’souza, who had also urged for three days’ notice before any coercive step is taken against him.

D’souza moved court apprehending arrest by the special investigation team set up by the state government to look into the payoff allegations. There was an allegation made by a witness, Prabhakar Sail, that a deal of Rs 18 crore was made for the release of Aryan Khan. Sail had specifically named D’souza as a beneficiary.

D’souza’s advocate argued that he is not arraigned as an accused and there is no FIR against him. “During the course of the whole thing, allegations made by some persons against Sameer Wankhede stating that to grant relief, he had taken money,” he said. But Justice Tavade interrupted him, saying he won’t hear the petition. “I’m not going to entertain this. You have a forum. Don’t waste my time,” he added.

The petition said D’souza is a consultant in a stone quarry business. On October 1, he was contacted by an associate Sunil Patil, who had information about drug use on Cordelia and the involvement of celebrities. Patil told Sam that Kiran Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali would contact him. Patil took NCB officials’ contact numbers from D’souza. On October 2, Patil said that a very influential person was arrested for drugs and asked D’souza to verify. Gosavi told him that Aryan was arrested and he wanted to speak to his father’s manager Pooja Dadlani.

D’souza’s petition said he contacted Dadlani through a mutual friend, a hotelier, and met her at Lower Parel. Dadlani allegedly told him she “is the decision-taker.” D’souza introduced Gosavi to Dadlani. Gosavi showed her a list in which Aryan’s name was not present and informed her that Khan had no drugs on him and he could help Aryan “get out of the situation.” Thereafter, Dadlani and Gosavi spoke in private, he said.

On October 3, D’souza said he was “shocked” to learn an FIR has been registered against Khan. After that, he learnt from Patil that Gosavi had taken Rs 50 lakh from Dadlani through Sail, who is also Gosavi’s bodyguard. D’souza said he realized Gosavi was a fraud and that his “only motive was to recover the money than be known for fraud.” Therefore he contacted Patil and Gosavi, recovered the money and returned it to Dadlani through her husband.

D’souza’s petition said he is innocent and has nothing to do with the alleged offence and he is falsely implicated by Sail.

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Sam D’Souza, the mysterious character mentioned in the affidavit of NCB’s panch witness Prabhakar Sail accused of brokering a deal between K P Gosavi and NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, has approached the Bombay HC for anticipatory bail, as he fears arrest by the SIT of Mumbai police. D’Souza in his bail application on Wednesday, said the extortion was not by NCB officers, it was Gosavi who did everything.

But after he realised that Gosavi was a fraud, the money was taken from him and returned to SRK’s manager Pooja Dadlani through her husband.

Prabhakar Sail, in his affidavit, had alleged that he overheard a telephonic conversation between Gosavi and D’Souza, where they were talking about a deal of Rs 25 crore to release Aryan Khan and wanted to settle it in Rs 18 crore, of which and Rs. 8 crore was supposed to go to Wankhede. Sail also claimed he got two bags full of cash on the instructions of Gosavi from Indiana bar in Worli. He later added that the bags had Rs. 50 lakh cash which he gave to Gosavi. He also alleged that on October 3 Gosavi asked him to meet D’Souza and gave him Rs 3.8 lakh.

D’Souza in his anticipatory bail application has corroborated the extortion deal but said that NCB officials were not involved, it was all done by Gosavi. “After coming to know that Kiran Gosavi was a fraud (he learnt about cases against him through the media), the applicant’s only motive was to recover the money and save his image. Therefore, he connected with Sunil Patil (another middle man) and Gosavi and recovered the money and returned it to Pooja Dadlani, through her husband,” he said in the bail application.

D’Souza also said that Gosavi had a number saved as SW2 (Sameer Wankhede). “I saw that Gosavi had saved a mobile no. as SW2, thereby showing that he was connected to top NCB officials; however, the true caller showed the name Prabhakar Sail,” D’Souza’s bail application reads. 

D’Souza’s affidavit further reads that on October 2 he got a call from one Sunil Patil who informed him that a very influential person was arrested for drugs on the Cordelia cruise and requested the applicant to check and verify this. According to D’Souza, as Patil insisted, he along with an associate, Kapil Dhole Patil, went to the green gate in his car.  “The applicant (D’Souza) was not aware of the influential person and went to the green gate where he met Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali who thanked him for helping them to connect to NCB officials. Gosavi then informed the applicant that the influential person arrested was Aryan Shah Rukh Khan,” the application reads further. 

After that, D’Souza was informed by Gosavi that Aryan wanted to connect with SRK’s manager Pooja Dadlani. Gosavi also told D’Souza that Khan had no drug in his possession till that time and was innocent. “Kiran Gosavi convinced me that he could help Aryan Khan get some relief and asked me to connect with Pooja Dadlani. The applicant told Gosavi that he has no direct connection with Dadlani but he can try to connect with her,” the application said.

The application also reveals that D’Souza contacted Dadlani through a mutual friend who is a hotelier, and met her at Lower Parel. After that D’Souza introduced Gosavi and Pooja Dadlani at Lower Parel for the first time with Chikky Pandey, Mayur Ghule, Kapil Patil and Dadlani’s husband Hitesh. During the meeting, Gosavi showed a list of people apprehended at the cruise and Aryan’s name was not mentioned as he was not found in possession of drugs, and assured that he could help to get Aryan out of the situation. According to D’Souza, after Gosavi showed details some confidential meeting happened between Dadlani and Gosavi and he left the place.

D’Souza also said in his application that on October 3 he got to know about the arrest of Aryan Khan and he was shocked and contacted Sunil Patil, who then informed him that Gosavi had taken Rs. 50 lakh through his bodyguard Prabhakar Sail. He also said that later he got to know Gosavi was a fraud. The application also alleged that Prabhakar Sail is a conspirator along with Gosavi to extort money. 

The Bombay High Court late on Wednesday rejected D’Souza’s bail application saying he should have approached the sessions court first.