The thin line between extortion and bribery has forced Mumbai Police’s Special Enquiry Team (SET) to put an enquiry on hold. The SET was formed to enquire into the alleged extortion by NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) officials in connection with the drugs-on-cruise case to release actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan. The other reason for the police’s enquiry reaching a dead end is SRK’s manager Pooja Dadlani not appearing before them despite multiple summons. She has given medical reasons for not joining the probe.

The Mumbai police, which formed the SET last month, also took legal opinion and believes that Dadlani is not legally bound to appear before them as they are only conducting an enquiry and no offence has been registered. “We have recorded multiple statements and Dadlani's statement is very crucial to move ahead and register an FIR in the case because she is the victim. Either she or Shah Rukh Khan has to complain,” an officer said. “As Dadlani has not appeared before the SET, the enquiry has been put on hold and further legal opinion has been sought in the case,” another officer added.

“Criminal law can be set in motion by anyone. They can register an FIR if they know an offence has been committed but the complainant's statement is needed during investigation. After registering an FIR, they can summon anyone and the person is legally bound to appear before them. In this case, if the victim comes forward  after the FIR and says that no extortion has happened, they can close the case,” senior lawyer Rizwan Merchant told mid-day.

After NCB witness Prabhakar Sail's claim, the NCB said that Dadlani tried to influence the witnesses and the investigation. The NCB’s vigilance team is also conducting a probe against Wankhede and other witnesses to check if any attempts were made to extort money from SRK to release his son. The NCB vigilance team headed by IPS Gyaneshwar Singh has recorded the statement of multiple people but not yet submitted their report.

Now the Mumbai police are enquiring about the alleged extortion case and have put it on hold waiting for the report from vigilance team of NCB. “The NCB has the upper hand in the case as Aryan got arrested. They can say that Dadlani tried to bribe the officers to get a favour which was to release Aryan Khan. The Mumbai police’s SET has not found any evidence against NCB officials in the ongoing probe. To investigate the role of NCB officials, first they have to register an FIR,” said an officer of the Maharashtra police.

The officer also said that the Mumbai police are waiting for the NCB vigilance report because if it is a case of bribery (Did Dadlani try to bride an NCB official - K P Gosavi allegedly told her he was one - to free Aryan), then it becomes the exclusive jurisdiction of NCB to take action against their own officers, and to find if they demanded a bribe to do a favour or they were offered certain favours.

P S Pasricha, former Commisioner of Mumbai police said, “The Mumbai police should try and find whether the victim is scared or deliberately avoiding coming forward. If the victim is scared they should talk to him/her and assured them of full security. In cases of extortion they need the victim to register an FIR, in other cases like murder or any other offence cops can become complainant.”

“Extortion is a crime wherein the accused demands goods, services or money through coercion against the will of another and blackmail is noticed. Bribery is offering and giving anything of value as a means of influencing the actions of a person holding public office. Solicitation of a bribe clearly is also a criminal activity. There is also a thin line as an unwilling bribe giver in a given case can be trapped in a web created by the conspirators which would involve blackmail and coercion,” said senior lawyer Dr Sujay Kantawala. Dadlani did not respond to this reporter’s messages.

The Mumbai police had formed the SET in November to probe the claim of one of NCB’s panch witnesses (Prabhakar Sail) who gave an affidavit and a complaint saying nothing was found on Aryan and he was framed. He also alleged that as witness he was forced to sign on a plain sheet of paper. He also said that he overheard conversation between his boss K P Gosavi and Sam Dsouza (the middle man who helped Gosavi get in touch with Dadlani) about demanding Rs 24 crore and settling everything for Rs 18 crore as Rs 8 crore was supposed to go to NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede. However, when D’Souza came forward, he said that NCB was never involved in this it was all done by Gosavi who allegedly impersonated an NCB officer and had a meeting with Dadlani twice. Later, Rs 50 lakh was given to D’Souza by Dadlani. The money was handed over to Sail and he gave it to Gosavi and later it was returned to Dadlani after everything was messed up and Aryan got arrested in the case.