The Delhi vigilance team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which is probing the allegations of extortion charges against its zonal director Sameer Wankhede, has summoned independent witness Prabhakar Sail on Monday to record his statement in the cruise drug bust case. The team comprising seven officers will reach Mumbai on Monday morning. It will record the statement of Sail at around 2pm at the Central Reserve Police Force’s (CRPF) mess in suburban Bandra, according to news agency.
The summon was sent to Sail, who claims to be the bodyguard of NCB witness KP Gosavi, after he claimed in an affidavit that he had heard his boss discussing a ₹25 crore pay-off deal to release Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was arrested by the NCB. The actor’s son is currently out on bail after being held for three weeks in the central Mumbai facility.
In the affidavit, Sail also claimed that Gosavi had also said that ₹8 crore of the deal money was to be given to Wankhede. However, the NCB official has denied the allegations.
This is the second visit that the vigilance team, headed by the NCB’s deputy director General Gyaneshwar Singh, is making to Mumbai in connection with the case. The team had first visited the city in October to probe the allegations, but could not record the statement of Sail as he failed to appear before it.
Before this, the vigilance team had already recorded statements of eight persons including Wankhede. It has also collected important documents and recordings related to the drug cases, according to reports.
Meanwhile, a special investigation team (SIT) of the Delhi NCB, which recently took over the investigation into the cruise drugs case, visited the Cordelia cruise ship where the party was organised on October 2. The cruise ship is docked at the Mumbai cruise terminal. The SIT is headed by the senior IPS officer and DDG Operations at NCB headquarters, Sanjay Singh.