Sanjay Singh, head of the SIT formed by NCB, at the NCB office on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Mumbai: NCP cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Sunday alleged that NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) zonal director Sameer Wankhede was part of a conspiracy to kidnap actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan for ransom and BJP functionary Mohit Bharatiya was the mastermind of the plan. Malik made it clear that his fight was neither against the BJP nor the NCB, but he will continue his campaign against the “wrongdoers in the system”.

Both Wankhede and Bhartiya denied Malik’s charges, saying they are baseless and false. Calling them a “bunch of lies”, Wankhede said: “Malik is raising allegations without any basis. Aryan was produced before the magistrate’s court and sessions court, where he said he had no complaints against the NCB. In the Bombay High Court too, during the bail hearing, neither Aryan nor his lawyer levelled any allegations against the NCB. The defence even filed an affidavit in the HC saying they are staying away from statements made by a politician.”

But Malik said: “I am making the statement with full responsibility. Wankhede was the party of the kidnap plot in collaboration with Bharatiya, who is the part of his private army. Initially, the deal was fixed for Rs 25 crore. It was reduced to Rs 18 crore after negotiations, and Rs 50 lakh was given. Unfortunately, the deal did not work out owing to NCB witness Kiran Gosavi’s selfie with Aryan, which went viral.”

Malik said he has confirmed information that Bharatiya met Wankhede near a graveyard in Oshiwara. “They were lucky that the CCTV camera near the kabarasatan has not been operational for a long time, otherwise the footage would show the meeting.” He further claimed that Kashiff Khan, the managing director of Fashion TV India and alleged organizer of the “rave party” on the cruise liner, had invited Mumbai city guardian minister Aslam Shaikh and the children of the cabinet members in the MVA government on the ship. “But Shaikh refused his invitation,” Malik said. He also alleged that besides Bharatiya, his brother-in-law Rishabh Saachdeva, Pratik Gabba and Aamir Furniturewala were instrumental in taking Aryan to the cruise ship. “Why were they not arrested by Wankhede,” he asked.

Bharatiya said Malik and Sunil Patil, who first gave a tip off to the NCB about the cruise party, were friends for 20 years. “When Patil used to party in The Lalit hotel, Malik would go too. Today, Malik has confirmed his relations with him; it’s a conspiracy set up by the NCP along with Patil,” he said. “I had earlier said that a cabinet minister, who has relations with drug peddlers, was involved in a cruise party. Today Malik has confirmed that Shaikh has relations with Khan and that the children of NCP leaders and ministers were in contact with peddlers and were invited to parties.”

“I am open for any inquiry...Malik should prove his allegations,” said Bharatiya. “I will go to court on all the allegations. I have also filed cases in the court for defamation...The NCP must clarify its relations with Patil...”

(Inputs by Chaitanya Marpakwar)

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Addressing his ninth press conference after the arrest of Aryan Khan, now out on bail, state minister Nawab Malik said on Sunday that an informer named Sanville D’Souza, alias Sam, orchestrated a deal between NCB officer Sameer Wankhede and Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani to let the actor’s son walk away. The matter wouldn’t have blown up had K P Gosavi’s selfie with Aryan not gone viral, said the minister.

Malik said Sam is an accused in the agency’s weed bakery case, but he was never arrested despite being summoned. Keeping up his allegations against Narcotics Control Bureau’s Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede has his own army to extort money from people and D’Souza was a part of it. Malik also said that some other NCB officers were also involved in what he called Wenkhede’s design. He said D’Souza was summoned by the NCB in June. Malik shared on Twitter what he claimed to be a copy of the summons.

The minister shared an audio clip purportedly between a top NCB officer and D’Souza. The officer purportedly tells D’Souza to report before the agency and that he should not “think of changing his phone as he has all IMEI details”. On D’Souza’s request, the officer gives him more time, claims the audio clip.

“I want to ask the agency why he was not arrested and what happened after the summons? As per my information, he [Sam D’Souza] paid some amount to the officer and became an informer. He was just involved in making deals for NCB and collecting money as we can see what is happening in the cruise drug case. He is one of the main culprits behind the extortion money taken from Pooja Dadlani,” Malik said.

The minister said he has nothing against NCB. “I am not saying that entire NCB is fraud but because of one person and his army, the image of NCB is at stake and the senior officers should not let this happen, they should probe and find the truth.” 

A source from the NCB requesting anonymity said, “He [Sam D’Souza] was called for clarity based on some facts that surfaced during the investigation. He was not arrested as there was not enough material against him.” The officer also said that D’Souza was summoned in a case of one accused who is the son of a former ACP of Mumbai police.

Malik said one of the six cases taken over by the NCB’s SIT is the one involving his son-in-law Sameer Khan. He said if this is an attempt to browbeat him, he won’t submit to such tactics. Claiming that there is apparent pressure on SRK and his manager, he said, “I urged them that they are victims and they should fear about anything.”

Meanwhile, Sunil Patil, another mysterious personality in the alleged extortion attempt from SRK’s manager Dadlani, came forward following D’Souza allegations that it was Patil who had introduced him to NCB’s panch witnesses K P Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali. Patil told the press that D’Souza is known him since the last one year. “He [D’souza] called me that he had information about the Cordelia cruise arty and wanted me to help and I connected him with Bhanushali and Gosavi. After everything happened I got involved again and because of my intervention, Gosavi returned all the money to Sam D’Souza,” said Patil.

Patil also said that D’Souza wanted his help over the NCB summons. “I told him that I don’t know anyone in NCB. He later asked for monetary help as he was supposed to pay to someone in the NCB. He was let off after he paid R25 lakh,” Patil said.

Patil said he has no connection with NCB and Nawab Malik as alleged by BJP’s Mohit Kamboj, alias Bharatiya. “I was associated with NCP till 2016 and after that I am not with any political party. The allegations made by Kamboj is baseless I have never met Malik I spoke to him once on October 10 after his press conference on the Aryan Khan case.”

Patil, who gave his statement to the Mumbai police SIT that is probing the extortion allegations against Wankhede and others on witness Prabhakar Sail’s complaint, said he was threatened and beaten in a Delhi hotel by Manish Bhanushali and others. He said they were forcing him to speak to the media in favour of Wankhede.

NCB’s SIT lead IPS Sanjay Singh had issued summons to Aryan Khan to record his fresh statement on Sunday, but he didn’t appear citing personal reasons. Singh said Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant and another accused Aachit Kumar recorded their statement. They were with the SIT for about 9 hours.

The Pune police have sped up their hunt to find the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) panch witness K P Gosavi, after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray attacked the agency in his Dussehra rally speech for targetting celebrities. If sources in the government are to be believed, the Pune police are also going to find how he became the panch witness in the case of Aryan Khan, and if the claim of NCB is true that he was not known to them. 

The police have arrested Gosavi’s former PA and are trying to find him with her help.

The tussle between the state government and the union government has been on for the past two years. The state government has accused the union government of using Central agencies to destabilize it. Nationalist Congress Party (NCB) supremo Sharad Pawar in a press conference recently also spoke about cabinet minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law's arrest saying he was allegedly framed by the agency.

Following the strong statements by the top leaders, the Pune police who had issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Gosavi, arrested the former PA and a wanted accused in a 2018 cheating case in which Gosavi is absconding. The PA, identified as Sherbano Qureshi, was arrested by Faraskhana police on Monday and has been remanded in police custody till October 23. "She was one of the wanted accused in the case and we arrested her after getting reliable information," said Satish Govekar, ACP Faraskhana.

According to Pune police, Gosavi, Qureshi and others were booked in the cheating case, where they gave false advertisements on social media site claiming to provide jobs in Malaysia and other countries. The complainant was cheated of Rs. 3.09 lakh. "The money has gone to the account of Qureshi and she was shown as wanted in the case after the charge sheet was filed in 2018," a police office said.

Qureshi worked with Gosavi for few months in 2018 and was being paid Rs. 10,000 per month. The police is trying to find the whereabouts of Gosavi with the help of Qureshi.

According to sources in the government, if Pune police manage to track down Gosavi, they will also check how he became the panch witness in the case, despite the fact that he is an absconding accused and has multiple cases registered against him in Pune, Thane and Mumbai. In one case, he was accquited by the court. The police will check whether Gosavi was in touch with any NCB officer and worked as an informer. If the police gets details of the cruise drug case, they will share them with the concerned department of the state government.

Gosavi's name was exposed by Malik when he gave a press conference that he (Gosavi) and a member of the BJP, Manish Bhanushali, escorted Aryan to the NCB's office. Malik claimed that the case was fabricated. The NCB said the statement made by Malik is prejudiced and baseless. The state government believes that Gosavi is an important link to the cruise drug case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan's son was arrested by the agency.

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Mumbai: NCP’s Nawab Malik on Wednesday referred to two videos related to NCB’s drugs seizure from a cruise liner, which have gone viral on October 2 and 3. In the video, one K P Gosavi is seen pulling up Aryan Khan (son of actor Shah Rukh Khan) to the NCB office, while in the second video, one Manish Bhanushali is seen forcibly escorting Arbaaz Merchant, another accused.

“Our information is Gosavi has a private business, while Bhanushali is associated with BJP. We have photographs of Bhanushali with all top BJP leaders, including ex-CM Devendra Fadnavis,” Malik said. He added, “We are keen to know what their role was in the operation. We have been told Gosavi and Bhanushali are not associated with NCB.”

Bhanushali confirmed he was present during NCB’s operation but claimed Malik had made “false allegations.” “I received information on October 1 that a drug party was to be held and I was there for updating information,” he said.

While Malik alleged “violation of procedure under NDPS Act”, Singh said in a statement, “Some allegations levelled against the organization are baseless and seen to be with malice and probable prejudice harboured in retaliation against earlier legal actions carried out by NCB. Our procedure will continue to be professionally and legally transparent and unbiased.”

On Gosavi and Bhanushali, he said, “They are associated with NCB in this operation as independent witnesses. In total, four follow-up seizures have been effected after the seizure from the cruise ship following due procedure.”

Malik said ever since they figured in the operation, the Facebook profiles of Gosavi and Bhanushali have been locked but claimed NCP had traced movements of Bhanushali. “On September 21 and 22, Bhanushali was in Gujarat to meet a few cabinet members. Incidentally, on September 21, drugs worth Rs 3,000 crore were seized at an Adani port. Again, on September 28, Bhanushali met a cabinet member in Gujarat. He was present in NCB’s operation in Mumbai on October 3. NCB and BJP must explain if Bhanushali has links with the drugs haul,” he said. Malik alleged the NCB action appeared aimed at defaming the MVA government and the film industry.

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The NCP on Wednesday produced evidence during a press meet, alleging that a false case has been registered against Aryan Khan and things are being manipulated by the NCB. Cabinet Minister and Chief Spokesperson of NCP, Nawab Malik said the two unknown men spotted escorting Aryan and Arbaz Merchant on October 2 are BJP men with direct links to senior party cadres. Responding to NCP’s allegations, the agency said the two men were independent witnesses and refused to answer any further questions regarding them.

During the press conference, Malik shared two videos in which one person is seen escorting Aryan to the NCB office, while the other was with Merchant. The person who was walking with Aryan had also clicked a selfie with him after his arrest.

Malik, who addressed the media on Wednesday, displayed a powerpoint presentation to show all the evidence he had to support his allegations. “After Aryan’s arrest, a selfie of an unknown person with him went viral and NCB said that he is not from the agency. We tracked the details of the person and found that he belongs to the BJP and claims to be a private detective,” Malik said.

Malik in his press briefing also alleged that since the Sushant Singh Rajput case, NCB has been targeting Bollywood. Even in Aryan’s case, nothing was seized at the cruise party, but planted on the accused at the NCB office. “The videos of seizure that the NCB shared with the press clearly show that they were shot in the NCB office. The entire operation was fake and carried out with the sole purpose of hogging publicity. Not a single gram of drug was seized from the arrested people. No panchnama was done. Some days ago, there was information that Shah Rukh Khan would be the next target. You are aware of the relations between the BJP and SRK,” he added.

Launching more attacks on the NCB, Malik said that after the case Wankhede spoke to the media on camera and said that 8-10 people had been arrested. “Why such a vague statement? When you’re investigating the case you should know the exact numbers. We want to know if there are 10 people because only eight have been shown as arrested. Who are the other two or have they been allowed to leave?”

The cabinet minister further said that they tracked the location of Bhanushali and found that he was in Ahmedabad in the last week of September meeting various politicians. During the same period drugs worth thousands of crores were seized at Adani port. “The agency must clarify if these two cases have any links,” said Malik.

Speaking to the press in Delhi, Bhanushali said, “I just gave information to the NCB as a responsible citizen, I was there in the capacity of a witness as requested by the NCB. My party (BJP) has nothing to do with the arrest. I don’t hold any position in the party; I am just a worker. Malik’s allegations are baseless. I will file a defamation case against him. My life is in danger, the government should provide security to me.”

When mid-day contacted Bhanushali, he said, “On October 1, I got information and shared it with the NCB immediately. An NCB officer told me that they had got similar information about the use of drugs at the cruise party. After the raid I had gone to the NCB office as a witness along with others. I had no idea that this would become a political issue. I risked my life and fulfilled my duty. Those who are taking and selling drugs should be punished.”

NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh along with Wankhede addressed the media on Wednesday. Singh read out a written statement about the details of the case and said that the allegations levelled against them were baseless. “There are several independent witnesses in the case as per the law,” Singh said. 

He further read the statement mentioning the names of a few witnesses, which includes that of Gosavi and Bhanushali, but didn't respond to the questions on how independent witnesses were escorting the accused and their connections with the ruling party. “Allegations levelled against the organisation are by people who were previously affected by NCB’s legal action. If anyone has any reservations, they can approach the court, we will respond,” he added. 

This year in January NCB arrested Malik’s son-in-law in a drugs case. “I have full faith in the judiciary and if he has done anything wrong, he should be punished, as no one is above the law. But those who are asking questions must read the chargesheet in my son-in-law’s case and ask questions to the NCB. He is out on bail and is fighting everything legally,” Malik said.

Meanwhile, responding to the allegations, Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis said it wasn’t difficult to understand Malik’s pain whenever the NCB came into the picture. “Do I need to say it? We all know it,” he said.