Sameer Wankhede at the Bharat Ki Shaan award ceremony, in Bandra, in August 2022. Pic/Satej Shinde

The initial tip-off received by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai did not mention the names of Aryan Khan, the Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, and his friend Arbaaz Merchant, reveals the detailed investigation report submitted before the Delhi High Court. The probe was conducted against NCB’s former zonal (Mumbai) director Sameer Wankhede and other officers, who are accused of various misconducts in the ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case.

NCB’s Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh led the special enquiry team’s (SET) investigation into the matter. Below are the findings in the vigilance report and also the details of the expenses that Wankhede has not been able to explain.

Tip-off note tampered with:  It appeared that the original information note was modified at the last moment and the names of Aryan, Arbaaz were included, while the names of some suspects were dropped. No documentation of seizure: Neither the panchnama mentioned any phones of the suspects seized nor was there a separate seizure memo. Thus, no formal documents were made for seizure of the phones. In the absence of a seizure memo, the chain of custody of the seized phone—vital evidence—was affected.

Allegation of valuables taken without documentation: Several witnesses examined by the SET stated that their and other suspects’ valuables were taken by NCB Mumbai officers without documentation. Allegation of settlement in matter of suspect Saumya Singh: The information note had her name, and despite the recovery of rolling papers from her bag, she was given a clean chit. The witnesses examined by the SET also showed her as a drug addict. She did not appear or assist in the enquiry of the SET.

The CCTV equipment of the NCB office was collected by the SET to verify the facts; however, it was found that the same has gone corrupt. The DVR and the hard disk provided by the NCB Mumbai office were different. It appears from the actions of the Zone that the CCTV footage had something important and the same was intentionally not provided to the SET.

The statements of the witnesses established that accused Aryan and Arbaaz were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle of K P Gosavi instead of an office car. The audio recording of Aryan circulated by Gosavi is again a procedural lapse.

The vigilance report also highlights misconduct and violations of Central Civil Services Rules by Wankhede. According to the report, Wankhede’s average annual income as per the ITR was about Rs 15.75 lakh (salary and rent), his wife Kranti’s about Rs 7 lakh (business) and father’s (pension and rent) about Rs 3.45 lakh. The expenses of the declared private visits have been apparently under-reported by Wankhede.

In a span of about five years, from 2017 to 2021, he and his family made six private foreign visits to countries like UK, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa and the Maldives, spanning over 55 days of foreign stay, with a declared amount of only Rs. 8.75 lakh, which can barely cover the cost of air travels, the report noted.

In all the visits, expenditure incurred onwards travelling, lodging, boarding, VISA, miscellaneous expenses declared by him is between Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 2.5 lakh, which is clearly incorrect declaration/under-reporting. Dubious transactions of Wankhede came to light with respect to his Maldives trip in July 2021.

The report states that various details, like the mode of travel, hotel booking, payment, etc., are unclear for his last trip to the Maldives. The question that arises from the lack of information is whether hospitality was accepted from any foreign source. If so, had Wankhede obtained necessary permission under the provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act/Rules from the Union home ministry, the report added.

The vigilance report also states that the payment of Rs 9,03,055 in cash by Wankhede’s friend Viral Jamaluddin to JD’s Partner for hotel booking raises doubt about unaccounted money laundering. The 19-day long visit to London for tourism cannot be justified with a declared expense of Rs 1 lakh, it added.

Wankhede purchased a Rolex Gold watch worth Rs 22,05,000 for Rs 17,40,000 on credit from Viral. There are multiple invoices/quotes of Rolex watches. The report further mentioned a “dubious transaction” of Rs 7,40,000 through cheque for four watches that were sold by Wankhede to Viral. The cheque was issued in the name of Kranti Redkar. It is also pertinent to raise the doubt that as to how Wankhede got the payment immediately for the sold watches (unknown buyers) and how he gets the facility of credit for the purchase of a new watch worth Rs. 22 lakh, the report stated.

In respect to disproportionate asset enquiry against Wankhede, the SET found that Wankhede owns four flats in Mumbai and 4,16,88-acre land in Washim. He claimed to have spent Rs 82,87,399 on a fifth flat in Goregaon valued at Rs 2,45,49,918. Wankhede has said that his wife Kranti had invested Rs 1.25 crore in their flat before their wedding on February 8, 2017. But the SET could not verify it, as they have not furnished the ITR of financial year 2016-17.

Meanwhile, Wankhede has moved an application before the Delhi High Court, seeking relief, stating that he has answered every question with facts. He has sought to register a cross FIR against his senior officer Gyaneshwar Singh, claiming he has been framed.

Wankhede has also submitted along with his petition copies of his WhatsApp chats with senior officers wherein he informed them of every move during the raid on the Cordelia ship and the subsequent arrest of Aryan. “We were not aware of what he and some members of his team were doing behind the curtain. The facts were revealed during the vigilance enquiry and action was initiated against him,” a senior NCB officer told mid-day.

Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant were named as accused in the October 2021 Cordelia cruise drug bust case at the last moment by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)-Mumbai, then headed by Sameer Wankhede, said an affidavit filed by IPS officer Gnyaneshwar Singh who had supervised the probe. According to the affidavit, the original case information note was modified and the two names were included, while names of some other suspects were dropped.

Wankhede failed to appear before the CBI on Thursday for recording his statement in the corruption case. Later, he told TOI that “Singh furnished a fabricated report...and CAT had given a stay on the report”.

Referring to a series of lapses, the affidavit said that they were proof the probe was compromised to give “an opportunity” to K P Gosavi—a witness in the drug bust case who has now been accused by CBI of extortion.

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Mumbai: An affidavit filed by IPS officer Gnyaneshwar Singh, who had supervised the NCB probe in the October 2021 cruise drug bust case, has raised questions on the release of two suspects. It pointed out the release of Saumya Singh by the NCB despite recovery of rolling paper in her bag during the raid. She was in the same room as arrested accused, model Munmun Dhamecha. “Allegation of settlement in the release of the suspect,” the affidavit said.

Another suspect Siddarth Shah, who had admitted to having supplied charas to Arbaaz Merchant, was allowed to go. NCB had claimed to have recovered 6gm of charas from Merchant.

Wankhede told TOI on Thursday: “The CBI has registered a case based on the inquiry report though the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and CAT had given stay on Singh’s report. I had justified all my spending and provided all sources of income, including parental income. Five of my flats were purchased before I came into service. I had never purchased any watch. Singh furnished a fabricated report.”

Singh’s affidavit said the series of lapses in the custody of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is proof of the fact that it was compromised in an intentional manner to give “an opportunity” to K P Gosavi, a witness in the drug bust case and now an accused in the CBI case.

Gosavi has been accused of demanding Rs 25 crores from Shah Rukh and collecting Rs 50 lakhs to favour Aryan in the case. The audio recording of Aryan circulated by Gosavi is again a procedural lapse. A selfie of Gosavi along with Aryan, hours after the raid, had gone viral.

The affidavit also mentioned about the tampering of the recording devices at NCB office. “The CCTV equipment of the NCB office was collected by the Special Enquiry Team (SET). . . However, it was found that the same has gone corrupt. The DVR and hard disc provided by office of NCB Mumbai were different. It appears from the actions of the zone that CCTV footage did have something important and...was not provided to the SET,” it added.

The affidavit also speaks about NCB officers taking valuables during the raid without documentation. One officer was repatriated for theft of an Apple watch from an accused. It stated that during the raid, neither the phones of suspects were seized with panchanama nor there was a separate seizure memo. Thus, no formal documents were made for seizure of phones.

Singh had filed the affidavit after Wankhede moved the CAT opposing the inquiry against him. These observations were also part of the findings of the SET set up by NCB.

Mumbai: The CBI probing allegations of corruption against Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede in the Cordelia drug bust case has said in the FIR that the names of suspects were inexplicably reduced from 27 to 10 by the investigators.

The CBI has raised suspicion over the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) preparing an internal “information note” in which “names of certain other accused” were later included “through modification to suit the proceedings”. The initial note had 27 names but subsequently after modification it was reduced to 10, the FIR said.

Questioning the allegedly arbitrary nature of the probe, the agency has also pointed out that the man who supplied drugs to a friend of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was not arrested despite him confessing to his role. The FIR said Wankhede and his team did not arrest Siddharth Shah, who admitted to supplying narcotics to Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant. NCB had claimed to have recovered six grams of charas from Merchant during the raid.

The FIR said Wankhede had also made foreign trips and indulged in sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches through a private individual, Viral Rajan, without intimating the department.

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Mumbai: The CBI’s FIR in it probe into allegations of corruption against IRS officer Sameer Wankhede in the Cordelia drug bust in 2021 suggests that the officer was living far beyond his known sources of income, seeking to link his wealth with his “dishonest” handling of the cruise liner case. Wankhede was western region head of NCB when he raided the cruise liner and arrested Aryan Khan and others in the drug case.

The FIR was based on a report by an NCB Special Enquiry Team (SET), which conducted an inquiry into allegations of “improper dishonest performance of duty by Wankhede and other officials. . . who obtained undue advantage from the persons/suspects in the cruise case”.

The report had said, “Further enquiries have also been done in the matters of allegations of criminal misconduct and corrupt practices of Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan independently, which could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income.”

The NCB also found that Wankhede had not adequately explained his foreign visits and had apparently misdeclared expenditure on his foreign travels.

On Thursday, the CBI filed a case of corruption against Wankhede, intelligence officer Ranjan, dismissed superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, two private persons Kiran Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza, also known as Sam D’Souza, for allegedly collecting Rs. 50 lakhs out of the total Rs. 25 crores demanded from Shah Rukh Khan in the light of the drug case involving his son Aryan.

The CBI said the suspects in the drug bust case were brought from the cruise liner to the NCB office in Gosavi’s private vehicle. “It appeared that presence of the independent witness around the accused persons was. . . intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that Gosavi was an NCB personnel though there were NCB personnel to handle the custody of the accused persons,” the FIR said.

“Gosavi was allowed to be present in the company of accused persons and allowed to come to NCB office after the raid which is against the norms for an independent witness.”

The FIR said Wankhede, in the capacity of immediate supervisory officer, had directed that Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail be taken as independent witnesses in the proceedings and that Vishwa Vijay Singh allow Gosavi to “handle the accused while taking him to NCB office”, thereby allowing Gosavi and others to create a visual impression of escorting/dragging Aryan Khan towards the NCB Mumbai office.

The CBI has searched the premises of the accused officers and their alleged accomplices and collected digital and documentary evidence for examination. CBI has added charges of extortion and criminal conspiracy besides sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the case.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against Sameer Wankhede says that the NCBs vigilance report found that his assets do not justify his acquired asset.

”Further inquiries have also been done in the matters of allegations of criminal misconduct & corrupt practices of Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan independently, which could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income.” The FIR reads.

The FIR further states that he was not able to explain his foreign visits and expensive watches. ”It has also come to the notice of the Vigilance Branch of NCB that Wankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and had apparently mis-declared the expenditure on his foreign travels. He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properly.”

“It was also found that Sameer Wankhede has indulged himself in the sale and purchase of expensive wristwatches with a private entity, Viral Rajan, without intimating the department (present or parent).” The FIR reads further.

In the FIR it was also revealed that Wankhede gave free hand to panch witnesses K P Gosavi to create an image that he is an NCB official and he took a selfie and recorded Aryan Khan's voice to extort money which was initially Rs. 25 crores and later it was settled for Rs. 18 crores of which Rs. 50 lakhs was taken by Gosavi but it was later returned.

“The inquiry conducted by SET has further revealed that the accused persons were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle of the independent witness K P Gosavi. It appeared that the presence of the independent witness K P Gosavi around accused persons was created intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that K P Gosavi was an NCB personnel even though there was NCB personnel to handle the custody of the accused persons.” The FIR says. 

According to CBI, the independent witness K P Gosavi was allowed to be present in the company of accused persons and even allowed to come to the NCB office after the raid which is against the norms for an independent witness. In this manner, K P Gosavi took the freedom and-clicked selfies and recorded the voice note of an accused.

The FIR further added, was this position that allowed K P Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D'Souza amongst others to enter into the conspiracy to extort an amount of Rs. 25 crores from the family members of the alleged 'accused', Aryan Khan by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of Narcotics substances. This amount was finally settled for Rs.18 crores. A token amount of Rs. 50 lakhs, bribe money was also taken by K P Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D'Souza but later a part of the bribe money was returned back by them.

“Sameer Wankhede, in the capacity of the immediate supervisory officer, had directed to take KP Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as the independent witness in the proceedings against the accused and directed  VV Singh to let K P Gosavi handle the accused while taking him to NCB Office thereby allowing freehand to K P Gosavi and others in order to create such a visual impression of KP Gosavi having the custody of the accused and escorting/dragging him towards NCB Mumbai office,” says the CBI FIR against Wankhede.

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The FIR filed by the CBI against Sameer Wankhede says the NCB’s vigilance report found that his assets do not justify his declared income. The investigating agency has summoned Wankhede to its headquarters in New Delhi for further questioning on  May 18.

According to the CBI’s First Information Report (FIR), independently conducted inquiries into the allegations of criminal misconduct and corruption by Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan Prasad could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income. The CBI has summoned Wankhede to its headquarters in New Delhi for questioning on Thursday (May 18).

The CBI registered an FIR against former NCB Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, then superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, then NCB intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad, K P Gosavi, Sanvile D’souza and other unknown persons on May 11 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The complaint in the case was filed by the superintendent of the vigilance department at the NCB headquarters.

The FIR states that Wankhede was not able to justify his foreign visits and expensive watches. “Wankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and apparently mis-declared the expenditure of his foreign travels. He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properly,” the FIR reads. The FIR further mentions that Wankhede indulged in the sale and purchase of expensive wristwatches with a private entity—Viral Rajan—without intimating the department.

However, a major part of the FIR deals with the alleged improper investigation and alleged extortion by Wankhede, in connivance with NCB officials and private persons. The CBI alleged that the accused, at the directions of Wankhede, had extorted an amount of around Rs. 25 crores from the family members of those accused in the Aryan Khan drugs case by threatening to charge them with possession of narcotic substances.

The FIR mentions that many other persons—except for the 10 accused including Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant—whose names were available with NCB officials as suspected persons, were not documented. A few persons who were suspects were even allowed to leave without any documentation being done.

The FIR mentions that a person named Siddharth Shah was let off by NCB officials despite there being evidence against him. “Shah who had allegedly supplied charas to Arbaaz Merchant was also allowed to walk free by NCB Mumbai officials despite admitting to selling charas to Merchant and incriminating chats that showed he himself was consuming drugs. The investigation also revealed that the names of certain suspects were dropped from the first information note (I-note) and the names of certain other accused were included subsequently through modification to suit the proceeding,” the FIR said. The initial I-note contained 27 names while the modified one contained only 10 names.

The accused nabbed in the Cordelia Cruise case were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle belonging to K P Gosavi—a private person and independent witness in the case. The presence of Gosavi, despite the presence of other NCB personnel to handle the accused, created an impression that he was an NCB officer. Gosavi was allowed to be with the accused and also allowed into the NCB office after the raid which is against the norms for an independent witness.

“Gosavi clicked selfies and recorded voice notes of an accused,” the FIR reads. According to the report, Wankhede had directed that Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail be taken along as witnesses in the proceedings. He allegedly directed Vishwa Vijay Singh to let Gosavi handle the accused in order to create an impression that he has their custody.

Citing Aryan Khan’s clean chit, model Munmun Dhamecha, who was one of the accused in the 2021 drugs on cruise case, has approached a special court in Mumbai court seeking discharge from the case.

Her plea states, “Khan, who was arrested due to being in the company of co-accused Arbaaz Merchant, from whom a recovery of 0.6 grams of charas was made, was discharged by NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) through their chargesheet.”

Dhamecha stated in her plea that when she boarded the cruise, nothing was found in her possession, but only from her cabin, and, therefore, she cannot be made responsible for it. Others present in the cabin during the alleged recovery were let off and she was the only one from her cabin who had been detained, the plea said.

Munmun was arrested along with Aryan and six others when a drug raid was carried out on a Mumbai-Goa cruise. “NCB Mumbai on October 2, 2021, intercepted Vikrant Chhokar, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Arbaaz Merchant, Aryan and Gomit Chopra at the International Port Terminal, Mumbai Port Trust, and Nupur Satija, Mohak Jaiswal and Munmun Dhamecha at Cordelia Cruise. All the accused persons were found in possession of narcotics, except Aryan and Mohak,”

Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General (Operations), NCB said in a statement while giving a clean chit to Aryan Khan.

Mumbai: Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, had advised his friend Arbaaz Merchant not to carry drugs to the cruise party, the latter said in his statement to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Merchant (26) was named as an accused in the chargesheet submitted against 14 persons in the cruise drugs case on Friday. It is alleged that 6gm of charas was recovered from Merchant after the October 2021 raid. He is currently out on bail.

The chargesheet stated: “Merchant told [NCB] that he and Aryan are close friends and also admitted that Aryan was aware of the fact that he [Merchant] was an occasional hash (charas) consumer and that’s why told him not to carry any hash to the cruise as the NCB was very active these days.”

Aryan is among the six persons against whom all charges were dropped by the NCB’s special investigation team (SIT). His alleged statements are also part of the chargesheet.

In another statement recorded on October 7, 2021, while he was in NCB custody, Merchant was again quoted. “He [Merchant] said that Aryan told him that his parents have advised him not to indulge in any illegal activities, especially drug consumption,” the chargesheet said.

Merchant also allegedly told the NCB that he had travelled to the international cruise terminal in Aryan’s car with two others. The chargesheet said that Merchant had also named a man who organized parties for “rich kids of Bollywood kids” and that drugs are consumed at these parties.

Also quoted are statements of Merchant’s friends who were headed for the party too. They were questioned by the NCB, but let off. The friends, in their statements, allegedly said that when they were in the NCB office, Merchant came to them and apologized. “…that due to him they all got into a problem and he felt really sorry for all. . . ,” the chargesheet said.

Another friend said, “Arbaaz told us that he has told NCB officers that we are not connected with this drug recovery from him. ”

Merchant’s friend, who had travelled with Khan, another friend and him said that he and his friends were invited to the cruise party as VIP guests, but they could not board as some charas was allegedly recovered from Merchant.

Among other statements recorded is that of actor Ananya Panday recorded on October 22, 2021, in connection with certain chats from 2019, including an alleged chat with Aryan about procurement of weed.

While Panday acknowledged the chats, she told the NCB that the chats related to weed were said in jest. “She said that all the chats held with Aryan were an extension of the same joke as mentioned earlier,” the statement attributed to her said.

In 2020, the Supreme Court had held that statements made to NCB officers solely cannot be used as a confessional statement in the trial of an offence or to convict an accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Act.

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New Delhi: The NCB has categorized the cruise drugs case into seven parts based on the role of accused and their inter-linkeges allegedly involving different activities contravening the provisions of the NDPS Act. To establish ‘guilt’, NCB is learnt to have relied upon the oral testimony of witnesses, case property, documents including chats and monetary transaction reports, sources said.

“WhatsApp messages, voice notes, voluntary statements of accused recorded under Section 67 of the Act, chemical examination report and forensic extraction of the digital devices and recovery of drugs establish complicity of the accused except Aryan Khan, Avin Shau, Samir Sehgal, Gopal Ji Anand, Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal,” a source said.

A large part of the chargesheet, sources said, comprises statements of the accused and WhatsApp chats between them and attempts to interlink them. To establish links between two of the suspects, the NCB, for example, has cited a chat reading: “He asks 2500 but on bulk order it’s 1500”.

“This chat corroborates the fact that X has purchased pills from Y as disclosed by X & Z in their voluntary statement,” a source quoted from a probe report.

Ironically, in its internal report, the SIT had said that excessive reliance on WhatsApp chats would be “counterproductive” during the trial considering the fact that integrity of data extracted from Khan’s phone is questionable as there is no memo to show how and when his phone was seized. The NCB is likely to file a supplementary chargesheet.

The NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau), Mumbai, led by Sameer Wankhede, arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan last year in October based on a statement by his friend, Arbaaz Merchant. After an eight-month-long investigation, the SIT headed by IPS officer Sanjay Kumar Singh gave a clean chit to Aryan, again based on the statement of Merchant, on Friday. According to sources, Merchant told the SIT that he did not make any statement before the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Mumbai. 

He also claimed his signatures were taken on a blank paper by NCB, Mumbai officers. In October, Mumbai, NCB arrested Khan after Merchant, in his voluntary statement, said that the 6 gram charas procured from him in a raid on a cruise ship, was for his own consumption and that of Aryan Khan. Later, NCB, Mumbai recorded a statement from Khan where he too confessed to consumption of the drugs. Apart from Khan, the agency has also given a clean chit to 5 more accused including four organisers. The charge sheet filed before the special NDPS court was against 14 people and six were given a clean chit due to lack of evidence. The 6,000-pages charge sheet was submitted before a special NDPS court on Friday, the court is yet to take cognisance of it. 

In a statement issued by the SIT, its chief Sanjay Kumar Singh said, “The SIT carried out its investigation in an objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by the SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of the NDPS Act is being filed. Complaints against the remaining six persons are not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.” 

Speaking to mid-day he said, “Our job was to conduct an impartial investigation to reinstate the faith of people in the NCB. During the course of investigation we didn’t find any evidence against the six accused including Aryan Khan.”

“The arrest and detention of Aryan Khan for 26 days was unjustified, more particularly when he was not found in possession of any drugs, there was no evidence of any kind, there was no material of any nature of violation of any law, much less the NDPS Act. We are happy that the Special Investigation Team under Sanjay Kumar Singh investigated the case in an objective manner and decided not to file a complaint against Aryan Khan for lack of sufficient evidence. Satya Meva Jayate,” said Khan’s lawyer, Satish Maneshinde.

Sources in the agency have confirmed that Khan has also said in his statement that he never confessed about consumption, and never said that the drug found in his friend’s possession was for his consumption. The first investigating officer, Ashish Ranjan, who has been suspended by the NCB DG, had recorded the initial statements of Merchant and Khan.

According to their first voluntary statement given to NCB Superintendent V V Singh, Merchant said that the drug was for consumption by him and his friend Aryan Khan, and based on his statement, the agency secured the two friends custody from Killa court in October last year.

While recording his statement before the SIT, Merchant retracted his statement, and said that he was forced to sign on a blank paper and he never made such a statement. “The entire case was based on his statement. He now claims that he was forced to sign on a blank paper and now he has retracted the statement which was the only evidence against Khan. As there is some truth in his statement given before SIT, Khan’s name has been dropped from the charge sheet as there was not sufficient evidence.” a senior officer of NCB told mid-day. 

According to Merchant's statement to NCB, he was travelling with Khan to the cruise party. In front of Investigating Officer Aashish Ranjan Prasad, Merchant accepted that he had kept charas inside his shoes. He did not say that the drug that was recovered from him was meant for any other person including Khan.

In the second voluntary statement of Merchant given before Ranjan Prasad, he said that Khan was aware that he (Arbaaz) was an occasional consumer, and that is why he told him (Merchant) not to carry any hash to the cruise, as NCB was very active these days and they (Merchant and Khan) will be in trouble.

In the initial voluntary statement given to the first IO of the case, Khan had confessed to consumption and said that the charas found from Merchant was for their consumption. While recording the statement before SIT, Khan also retracted this statement and said that he never made such a statement before anyone. As per the internal note of SIT, Khan in his initial statement, had said that the drug found on Merchant was for consumption, not specifically saying whose.

The NCB has also cited a statement of crucial witness, Prabhakar Sail who died recently, saying that he was asked to sign on a blank paper by another panch witness, K P Gosavi, who was present at the time of searches and he (Sail) did not witness any drug recovery. 

The second aspect on which the NCB led by Wankhede had relied on, was WhatsApp chat and through Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, the agency claimed before the sessions and Bombay High Court, that Khan was part of an international drug cartel. However, the SIT has said those chats were not related to this case and hence there was no relevance. 

The SIT in its internal note has also said, “It is strange to note that in spite clear denial by Arbaaz regarding the involvement of Aryan in the procurement and possession of drugs from him, the investigating officer started looking at WhatsApp chats of Aryan Khan, even formally seizing his mobile phone. It appears that the IO was motivated to somehow implicate Aryan Khan in the drug case. Khan, while arguing for his bail before the Bombay High Court, argued on the seizure of the mobile phone, saying it was not formally seized by the agency.”

In the internal note submitted to the DG NCB, the agency has also claimed, “In the Punchnama that was drawn after the search and seizure at the Cruise Terminal, it has been mentioned that the mobile phone of Aryan Khan was voluntarily handed over by him to the Investigating Officer. It is to be noted that this was not followed by formal seizure procedure as laid down in the law.” 

“Investigation has further disclosed that data extraction of Aryan’s mobile was done and it contained various WhatsApp chats with different people alluding to consumption of weed, hashish, etc. Witnesses and accused were asked to join the investigation based on the contents of the WhatsApp chat treating them as if contents of WhatsApp chats are the primary source of evidence,” the NCB’s internal note reads further. 

According to the NCB, the Supreme Court has time and again questioned the evidentiary value of WhatsApp chats. Therefore, “our excessive reliance on WhatsApp messages will be severely counterproductive during the trial of the case, considering the fact that integrity of data extracted from Aryan’s phone is questionable as there is no seizure memo for Aryan’s phone to show how and when his phone was seized.” the internal note reads further.

After Khan and the others were arrested and after allegations by NCP Minister Nawab Malik, the NCB formed a SIT headed by Singh to probe the matter further. After the clean chit from NCB, the family of Malik, from his Twitter handle said, “Now that Aryan Khan and 5 others get a clean chit will NCB take action against Sameer Wankhede his team and the private army or will it shield the culprits?” 

According to sources, based on the findings, the SIT has submitted a detailed note to NCB DG SN Pradhan to take action against the investigating officer and Wankhede. Pradhan has also initiated departmental enquiry against them. Wankhede is already facing a vigilance probe and two officers, VV Singh and Ashish Ranjan, have been suspended. Wankhede was not available for comment, but sources close to him said that the decision to arrest Khan and others was collective and everyone was informed with the evidence. Apart from Khan, the four organisers of the cruise, Gopal ji Anand, Samir Sehgal, Bhaskar Arora, Manav Singhal and another accused, Avin Sahu, have not been charge sheeted due to lack of evidence.

New Delhi : Setting aside the findings of an investigation carried out by its own officers, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has given a clean chit to actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, who was arrested following the seizure of drugs from some co-passengers on a cruise liner last year. Khan (24) had spent 27 days behind bars. Along with Khan, five others have been exonerated after a review of the case by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The NCB on Friday filed a chargesheet against 14 suspects in the case in the court of special judge for NDPS cases, Greater Mumbai, as its 60-day extension to file the report was to end in two days.

Absolving Khan of involvement doesn’t seem to stem from just lack of evidence; the SIT’s probe raises serious questions on his arrest per se. Its findings, which sources confirmed were part of the chargesheet, suggest that Khan may have been falsely implicated.

NCB chief S N Pradhan said there were irregularities in the investigation conducted by then zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his team. “There should be physical corroboration of WhatsApp chat. Courts have clarified that WhatsApp chat, in itself, holds no value. You can talk about anything on WhatsApp but if not corroborated with physical evidence, it’s not complete evidence,” he said.

Mumbai: WhatsApp chats extracted from the mobile phone of Aryan Khan disclose “nothing objectionable” nor is there any evidence to show he and his friend Arbaaz Merchant or Munmun Dhamecha and other co-accused had hatched any conspiracy to commit drug offences, and they had already been behind bars for 25 days, said the Bombay high court in its reasoned order for granting them bail on October 28 made available on Saturday.

“Applicants were not even subjected to medical examination so as to determine whether at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs,” said Justice Nitin Sambre, whose reasons for giving bail came a month after special NDPS judge V V Patil at sessions court had found the same chats showing “reference to bulk quantity and hard drugs”.

It is not in dispute that Khan (23), son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, was not found in possession of any drug, the reasoned order read. Nor is it in dispute that the quantity of drugs allegedly seized from Merchant (26) and Dhamecha (28), to whom too HC granted bail, “is small quantity”.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had arrested the trio on October 3 following its October 2 raid at the city’s international cruise terminal.

The NCB had said it seized 6 gm of charas from Merchant at the terminal gate. Merchant, it said, planned to smoke it and since he was travelling with Khan, it was in Khan’s “conscious possession”. Five grams of hashish was seized from Dhamecha’s cabin.

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Mumbai: The HC in its reasoned order-granting bail to Aryan Khan and 2 others observed that the NCB seizure is small quantity and said, “Even if it is appreciated, the maximum punishment prescribed is not more than one year for such offence. Applicants have already suffered incarceration for almost 25 days.”

The HC issued the bail conditions and set the bond amount on October 29. Khan was released from Arthur Road jail on October 30, followed by Dhamecha and Merchant the next day. Aryan Khan was invited as a guest on the cruise by the event organiser.

The HC in its 14-page order said it is “required to be sensitive to the fact that there has to be presence of basic material in the form of evidence so as to substantiate the case of conspiracy against the applicants.” Merely because the applicants were travelling on the cruise, “that by itself cannot be termed as satisfying foundation for invoking provisions of Section 29 (conspiracy) against the trio,” the HC reasoned.

It rejected NCB’s submissions made through additional solicitor general Anil Singh that there was conspiracy and since “cumulatively commercial quantity of drugs was seized from the accused persons,” the “intention” of the trio to commit offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act should be considered and bail denied.

Khan’s counsel -- Mukul Rohatgi, Amit Desai and Satish Maneshinde -- and Merchant’s counsel -- Desai and Taraq Sayed -- had argued that for an offence of conspiracy, there has to first be a consensus via “meeting of minds’’ before the act is committed, and here there was none. The ASG had said conspiracies are difficult to prove at the bail stage.

None of them, the two students and, Dhamecha, a model from MP, have any criminal antecedents, the order said. Dhamecha’s lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan argued she too was invited as a guest for the party on the two-day cruise from Mumbai to Goa.

Justice Sambre said that to infer an act of conspiracy on part of the trio with other coaccused in the case, “there has to be positive evidence about such an agreement to do an unlawful act or a lawful act by unlawful means and such agreement must precede with meeting of minds.” His order noted, “There is absence of material on record of them having such meeting of minds with other accused who were named in the offence in question.”

There is “hardly any positive evidence to convince this court that all accused with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act,” said the order, “Rather the investigation carried out till this date suggests that (Aryan and Arbaaz) were travelling independent of (Dhamecha) and there was no meeting of minds.”

“There is no material on record to infer that applicants have hatched conspiracy” to commit a drug offence, hence it is difficult to infer at this stage that they are involved in an offence of commercial quantity, hence a stringent provision like Section 37 which places greater checks on courts before granting bail “would prima facie not be attracted to the case.” “It is difficult to infer that applicants are involved in an offence of commercial quantity,” said Justice Sambre.

Justice Sambre clarified that ‘confessional statements’ recorded under Section 67 of NDPS Act can be considered only for investigation purpose and “cannot be used as a tool for drawing inference that the applicants have committed an offence under the Act.”

The trio’s counsel had cited the Supreme Court ruling in the Toofan Singh case, which said NCB officers are also police officers and confessional statements recorded by them are not admissible evidence. The HC rejected NCB claims that Khan and the two others had, via their statements, “accepted” their involvement.

The arrest sans a notice first was illegal said Desai, but stating Section 37 makes all offences ‘cognizable and non-bailable’, no such notice under Section 41A of Criminal Procedure Code was required and the arrest was legal, the HC order noted the ASG as saying.

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The Bombay High Court issued a detailed copy of the bail order granted to Aryan Khan in the cruise drug case on Saturday. In the order, the HC said that no substance was found on Aryan, and that there was no evidence of any conspiracy against him or his co-accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha to commit drug-related offences.

The court also said that nothing objectionable was found in the conversation between the accused on WhatsApp. “There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit the unlawful act,” the order read.

The NCB had argued in the court that the accused had confessed that they had consumed drugs. Clarifying this point, the HC wrote in the order that statements containing such confessions are meant to help the investigating agency. “But, you cannot [use this to] show that the applicants have committed an offence under the NDPS Act.”

The court also said that the NCB had not done a medical checkup of the three accused, which would have proven whether they had actually taken drugs at the same time. Aryan was arrested by the NCB on October 2. He was allegedly accused of attending a drug party on a cruise travelling from Mumbai to Goa. The NCB had arrested 20 more people, including Merchant and Dhamecha, along with Aryan. Aryan got bail from the High Court on October 28 after spending three weeks in Arthur Road Jail.

Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau’s Special Investigation Team, headed by IPS officer Sanjay Kumar Singh, summoned actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and other accused in the cruise drugs bust case on Sunday. While Aryan failed to appear before the investigators citing “slight fever”, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and co-accused Achit Kumar arrived at the NCB office and were quizzed for several hours. Sources said Aryan is expected to appear before the SIT in a day or two.

“We are issuing summons to all the accused and people concerned in the six drug cases that are now being probed by the SIT,” said an NCB officer. The SIT was formed on Friday and arrived in Mumbai the next day.

Merchant came in the morning to give his statement, while Kumar arrived in the afternoon.

ANI reported that Prabhakar Sail, a witness who claimed that a deal of Rs 18 crore was made for Aryan’s release, has been summoned by the NCB’s vigilance team on Monday. Earlier, he had failed to appear before the team on October 30, an official said.

The cruise liner drug case, actor Armaan Kohli’s case, the case involving minister Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan, and three charas and mephedrone cases, which were being supervised by Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, were transferred to the Singh-led SIT.

Meanwhile, Sunil Patil, whom former Mumbai BJP youth wing chief Mohit Bharatiya has accused of being the mastermind of the cruise drugs episode, appeared before the Mumbai Police's SIT on Sunday to record his statement, an official said. Patil reached Azad Maidan police station in a private cab and the SIT office in south Mumbai around 6.15 pm, he said.

ACP Milind Khetle, who heads the police’s SIT set up to probe allegations of extortion against NCB officials in connection with the cruise drug bust, will record Patil’s statement. It has already recorded the statement of NCB’s independent witness Prabhakar Sail, the official said.

Mumbai: Unlike Aryan Khan, the two other accused who got bail on the same day as him had to stay in jail for another night as they were unable to complete bail formalities despite a frantic effort by their lawyers, families and friends. Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant (26) and model from Madhya Pradesh Munmun Dhamecha (28) had to spend their 27th night in Arthur Road jail and Byculla jail respectively. With the two finally managing to procure release orders from court only at 7.30 pm, they are likely to be released on Sunday. Nine others granted bail by the NDPS court on Saturday made their way home after being released late evening.

Unlike in the case of the nine accused who were permitted release on provisional cash bail of Rs, 50,000 each, the Bombay High Court that granted bail to Aryan, Merchant and Dhamecha had set the bail surety amount at Rs 1 lakh. Furnishing surety is comparatively a more complex procedure.

While for Aryan, on Friday itself, an hour after HC set bail conditions at 3.30 pm, actor Juhi Chawla made a dash to sessions court to present herself as surety and sign a bond of Rs 1 lakh, ensuring he was released on Saturday morning, for Merchant and Dhamecha, fulfilling bail conditions was more arduous. As presenting a single surety of Rs 1 lakh was difficult as a solvency certificate was difficult for them to procure in such a short period of time, Merchant and Dhamecha’s families brought seven people each to stand surety for Rs 15,000 each.

For MP-based Dhamecha, it was her brother, relatives and friends; Merchant’s sureties included his mother, brother and others. For a surety of over Rs 15,000, one has to furnish a solvency certificate of an immovable property worth that much or more. For surety of Rs 15,000 or less, income certificate, ration card and proof of residence is enough, a lawyer said.

The process then commenced on Saturday morning, with both families frantically trying to complete the procedure before court and get the release memo to the jail before the cutoff time of 5.30 pm. The order, which is in a sealed cover, is to be placed in the drop box outside jail. Dhamecha’s lawyer Ali Kaashif Khan said the procedure in court was completed only at 7.30 pm, two hours beyond the jail’s deadline.

Earlier in court at 5.20 pm, Merchant’s father Aslam Merchant said the family was hoping the jail would consider a delay of half-an-hour or so. Aslam claimed that a power cut at 4 pm in court had set them back by half an hour. “I met my son in the morning. He is upset with the delay and wants to get out immediately. Even Aryan is out now. He is all alone,” Aslam said. Ali Kaashif Khan said they managed to drop the release order in the box at 8.30 pm.

Curious onlookers had lined up on the streets outside Arthur Road jail

Mumbai: It was a Friday release that Shah Rukh Khan’s family, friends and fans were waiting eagerly for, their eyes on the clock expecting the actor’s son Aryan Khan to walk out of prison. But even as the drone of crowds outside Arthur Road Jail grew louder and Mannat, the Khan home in Bandra, sparkled with fairy lights, it was a countdown that did not end after Aryan’s bail papers missed the jail’s deadline.

While the sea of humanity that erupted near Mannat on Thursday as soon as news broke of Aryan being granted bail had been kept at bay by the police who cordoned off the road outside the actor’s bungalow with only media allowed to take up space, a large crowd had gathered outside Arthur Road Jail in anticipation of SRK’s arrival and Aryan’s exit.

Traffic cops rushed in to control the bottleneck caused by cars and taxis slowing down while police personnel from N M Joshi Marg had to be called in to manage the milling crowd of onlookers queued up on pavements, perched on the divider and trailing every arriving car, to greet the actor.

“I have come here to see King Khan,” said a youngster, waiting outside Arthur Road’s gate for over three hours. A man in his 30s said, “I come to this area for work but when I heard Shah Rukh Khan’s son might come out of jail soon, I decided to wait.” A group of women grew impatient with speculation that Aryan’s release may be delayed to Saturday.

Aryan’s bail papers failed to meet the 5.30 pm deadline when the bail box closes for further submissions. “The bail box outside the jail is opened four times a day following which the bail documents submitted are verified before allowing a prisoner to step out of jail. If someone drops the bail paper after the specified time, the prisoner is released the next day,” a jail source told TOI.

Earlier in the day, the mood at the Khan household had seemed upbeat. SRK had left home in the afternoon, perhaps hopeful the formalities would be completed for Aryan to walk free while Diwali arrived early at Mannat. Their domestic help were seen draping the house with strings of light that came on after dusk and dispelled the darkness of one more night before the Khans can welcome their son back home.

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Mumbai: A day after the Bombay high court granted Arbaaz Merchant bail in the drugs case, his father, Aslam, visited Arthur Road jail. Aslam told TOI: “This is my third visit here (at Arthur Road jail). I spoke to Arbaaz for about 20 minutes and told him he will be out today or tomorrow. He told me to get him out today itself and told me that he had been unable to sleep or eat for five days due to excitement.”

Arbaaz, a friend of Aryan Khan, was arrested along with Munmun Dhamecha on October 3 after the NCB found 6 gram of charas from Arbaaz’s shoes.

Mumbai Hours after the Bombay High Court gave the operative part of its bail order at 3.30 pm on Friday setting the bail surety amount at Rs. 1 lakh, hopes for the same day release of Aryan Khan from Arthur Road Jail dwindled among his legal team as the bail formalities, which included furnishing of a surety and other procedures, took time.

On his 26th day in a cell and his hopes pinned on paperwork, Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, had to contend with one more night in a jail barrack, though not of uncertainty, report Swati Deshpande & Rebecca Samervel.

Justice Nitin Sambre had on Thursday granted bail to Khan (23), his friend Arbaaz Merchant (26) and Munmun Dhamecha (28). Aryan’s advocate said he would be released shortly after 7 am on Saturday.

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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to 23-year-old Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, a model from Madhya Pradesh, in the case of seizure of drugs from a cruise liner on October 2. All of them have spent 25 days in custody.

Shah Rukh Khan (55) had tears in his eyes when he heard the news of his son’s liberty being secured, said senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi. He said Shah Rukh even made notes to assist the legal team.

The detailed order of the HC single bench of Justice Nitin Sambre, with conditions of bail and the amount for surety, would be out on Friday. This meant the three would spend another night in jail.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, who appeared for the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), argued for over an hour where he opposed the bail pleas, saying, “Aryan Khan is a regular consumer of drugs. There is evidence to prove that he has been providing drugs.”

Singh said, “It was a party. My learned friend is saying why we have arrested on October 2 on Gandhi Jayanti… The arrest was not invalid. The order of remand was never challenged on grounds of illegal arrest, so far. Not even one of the three remand orders of the magistrate was challenged, now belatedly they cannot say arrest is illegal.”

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Mumbai: The HC on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha in drugs seizure case.

At the hearing of the bail plea of the trio, senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing as lead counsel for Merchant, along with advocate Taraq Sayed, had on Wednesday termed the very arrests as “illegal’’ as no notice under Section 41A of Criminal Procedure Code was issued to first seek an explanation since alleged recovery of charas was small and attracted less than a year’s punishment.

Singh said tampering cannot be ruled out as “the affidavit by a witness named a person”. He did not name the person himself, though he was referring to Prabhakar Sail’s affidavit in which he has alleged a Rs 8 crore payoff to an NCB official and mentioned Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan’s manager.

The NCB stressed again that Khan and Merchant were together and Khan was in “conscious possession”, and that he was connected with peddlers and the entire case is one, which cannot be dissected, and it is of commercial quantity. When the judge asked on what basis the agency had found Khan dealing in “commercial quantity”, the NCB referred to his WhatsApp chats. “The grounds of arrest were shown within four hours of arrest. Four hours cannot be called a delay. Besides, conspiracy is difficult to prove. It is only the conspirators who know how they have conspired. We have WhatsApp chats which we will place on record.”

Rohatgi, brought in from London for the HC hearing, then started his rejoinder to argue why NCB arguments ought not to be accepted. He argued for about 15 minutes and after mid-submission, the judge said he had heard enough. He tossed the three applications towards his staff and said, “All three applications are allowed.” It was around 4.45 pm. The courtroom was packed, with other lawyers too. The suddenness of the pronouncement took many by surprise.

Khan’s advocate Satish Maneshinde then sought permission to submit cash bail, which the court refused, and said it has to be a surety. “I could have also given the order tomorrow. But I gave it today,” Justice Sambre said. He said the detailed order assigning reasons would come later.

Khan is presently in judicial custody and lodged at Arthur Road prison. The legal team will now try to complete the formalities for his release by Friday itself or Saturday, once the operative part is out, depending on the time the order copy is out.

Rohatgi in his rejoinder said, “Aryan and Arbaaz were together. But the most important thing put against us is commercial quantity being recovered from others. While the ASG refers to Section 37 (provision making bail tough) of NDPS Act by referring to commercial quantities being recovered, Section 27A (the serious offence of illicit trafficking and financing of drug trafficking) is not invoked against them,” he pointed out. Both Rohatgi and senior counsel Amit Desai had on Wednesday argued that the arrest memo did not mention their arrest was for any conspiracy but that offence was inexplicably shown in the first remand application on October 3.

“What is argued against me is what has been found on five others, which if you total up, will amount to commercial quantity. Aachit Kumar, whom NCB called a dealer, was arrested four days later with 2.5 grams. Can he be a dealer? Their case is that since they were there it is a case of conspiracy, but the conspiracy is a meeting of minds. Apart from Arbaaz none of the other accused have any connection with me, and there were 1,300 people in the cruise,” Rohatgi said.

Rohatgi said, “It is the greatest travesty of justice if Article 21 (right to life and liberty) is not examined at the time of bail.”

The three were arrested on October 3 and booked under relevant sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act for possession and consumption after 6gm charas was allegedly found on Merchant’s shoes and 5gm from Dhamecha’s cabin floor. Both had denied the recovery, and Khan’s case was that there was nothing found on him at all, yet he was arrested and alleged to be part of a “larger conspiracy” by the NCB.

Meanwhile, after the day’s proceedings, solicitor Raian Karanjawal from Delhi, engaged by his school junior, Shah Rukh Khan for the HC bail hearing, said, “I interacted with Shah Rukh Khan before the matter, when he asked me about Mukul Rohatgi before the HC bail plea, and after bail was granted, over the phone. He thanked us. My daughter, part of the legal team interacting more frequently, found him well versed with all the facts, measured in the approach, not excitable as a lot of clients are in such situations and very balanced to talk to. He was also familiar with aspects of the case.”

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The Narcotics Control Bureau team led by its Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede that busted a rave party on cruise liner Cordelia on October 2 allowed one of the organisers to walk free, alleged state cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Thursday. The minister identified the person as Kashiff Khan, head of Fashion TV India, and said he is a friend of Wankhede. On Wednesday, Malik had said that NCB was a competent agency and should find out about a bearded man who he claimed was a drug dealer and was let off after the raid on the cruise liner that led to the arrest of Aryan Khan.

Malik said on Thursday that he has a video where Kashiff Khan was seen partying inside the cruise along with his girlfriend. “He is close to Wankhede and he was allowed to leave, he was one of the organisers. While other organisers were arrested, he was let off. The NCB zonal director must answer his connections with him,” Malik said. The minister has levelled several allegations against Wankhede including of phone tapping. He had earlier said that three people were let off by Wankhede and one of them is a relative of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya. The NCB has said that six people were let off after they didn’t find any evidence against them. Bharatiya has filed a defamation case against Malik for dragging his name to the case.

In March, the Oshiwara police had booked Kashiff for allegedly raping and assaulting a 31-year-old colleague in a five-star hotel. According to the complaint filed by the woman, Kashiff had been making overtures for a year and had misbehaved with her. After she repeatedly rejected his advances, Kashiff allegedly raped her and filmed the alleged assault. He wasn’t arrested then. As per the complaint, the woman joined Fashion TV in March 2020 and often accompanied Kashiff for business meetings. During one such business trip to Goa, Kashiff touched her inappropriately, said the complaint. mid-day tried to reach Kashiff but his number remained switched off.

With inputs by Anurag Kamble