Mumbai: The CBI has registered a case of corruption against Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede and four others for allegedly collecting Rs 50 lakh from actor Shah Rukh Khan in the October 2021 Cordelia drug case involving his son Aryan Khan.

Wankhede and the others are accused of demanding a total sum of Rs 25 crore from the actor to get his son cleared of charges of drug possession. The CBI has searched 29 locations in Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow and Chennai, including Wankhede’s home in Goregaon west. Wankhede called it vindictive action as he had filed a complaint of harassment against a senior NCB officer.

He said, “I am a disciplined official of government of India. I will fight the legal battle and have complete faith in judiciary.”

Wankhede was western region head of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and headed the probe into the case against Aryan Khan. The other accused in the case include intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan, dismissed superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, and two individuals —Kiran Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza also known as Sam D’Souza—who were being used as witnesses or informers. Singh and Ranjan were part of the probe team.

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Mumbai: Former NCB western region chief Sameer Wankhede, intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan, dismissed superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, and two individuals, Kiran Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza have been booked by CBI in an extortion case involving Shan Rukh Khan.

Singh was dismissed on Tuesday for misconduct in another case in which he was under suspension. Ranjan was also suspended for allegedly not presenting a strong case before a court hearing a bail plea of an accused in another drug case. Gosavi was a panch witness in the drug case. Gosavi, according to his bodyguard Prabhakar Sail, had discussed Rs 25 crores demand with Sam D’Souza over phone. This conversation also had a reference to a payment of Rs 8 crores to Wankhede, who had denied the allegations.

On October 2, 2021, the NCB conducted a raid on a cruise ship called Cordelia after receiving a tip-off that drugs were being consumed in a party on board. Several people, including Aryan Khan, were arrested in the case in subsequent days. However, allegations by NCP leader Nawab Malik that the NCB officers were using fake witnesses and flimsy evidence to carry out high profile arrests on charges of drug possession put the spotlight on some of the cases. A Special Investigation Team was set up to probe them. A selfie of the witness Gosavi with Aryan Khan in side the NCB office went viral raising questions about the credibility of the NCB action.

The NCB’s SIT in a subsequent probe had said that it appeared that the investigating officer was motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan in the drugs case. “It is strange to note that in spite of clear-cut denial by Arbaaz (Merchant), regarding involvement of Aryan in the procurement and possession of drugs from him, the investigating officer started looking at WhatsApp chats of Aryan without even formally seizing the mobile phone of Aryan,” the report said. NCB had claimed to have recovered six gm charas from Merchant, who was described by the agency as Aryan's friend.

CBI on Friday said Wankhede and the others “had entered into criminal conspiracy” and “allegedly obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes” from Aryan Khan and others...

“It has also been alleged that the said persons entered into conspiracy in order to extort an amount of Rs 25 crores (approx) from the family members of the alleged accused by threatening them” with charges of “possession of Narcotics Substances asper the alleged directions of then Zonal Director being the Supervisory Officer. A token amount of Rs 50 lakh as bribe was allegedly obtained in furtherance of this conspiracy by the said persons”.

Gosavi’s private bodyguard Prabhakar Sail (who died last April) in an affidavit filed in the court soon after the raid had levelled serious charges of a huge payoff to Gosavi, a mysterious meeting between Gosavi and Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani a few hours after the raid on Cruise and also alleged threat to his life.

Sail said he was instructed by Gosavi to come to the NCB office on October 2, (the raid happened late in the night). Sail’s affidavit mentions Gosavi meeting with NCB officials and seeing Khan in one of the cabins of the cruise liner. The city police had set up a SIT to probe a case of extortion but could not arrive at any conclusion as Dadlani failed to turn up despite being issued several summons.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede and many others on charges of corruption and extortion in connection with the Cordelia cruise drugs case that had to the arrest of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan.

Wankhede was the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) zonal director, Mumbai, at the time and probed the case. Among others booked are the then superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, Ashish Ranjan (the then intelligence officer of Mumbai zonal unit, NCB), K P Gosavi (a private person whose selfie with Aryan following latter’s arrest went viral), Sanvile D’Souza (a private person).

The CBI alleged that the accused extorted an amount of about Rs 25 crores from the family members of the alleged accused by threatening them with the accusation of offenses of possession of narcotics substances as per the alleged directions of Wankhede.

“My father has been saying this since day one, and now the CBI has confirmed it after years of investigation. Those who denied the truth of my father’s allegations should be held accountable,” said Nilofer Malik, daughter of NCP leader Nawab Malik, after the CBI booked Wankhede.

Malik had alleged Wankhede extorted money in all his cases and highlighted the gross violation in the case of Aryan Khan. “Some people believe that truth can be obscured with a little cover-up and decoration. However, as time passes, the truth will eventually come to light, while falsehoods fade away,” she added.