NCP terms SRK son's drug bust ‘stage-managed’

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NCP terms SRK son's drug bust ‘stage-managed’

Thursday, 07 October 2021 | TN RAGHUNATHA | Mumbai

A political controversy broke out in Maharashtra over the sensational mid-sea drug bust case on Tuesday, as the ruling NCP alleged that the “not a single gram of drug was seized from the arrested persons” and two private persons, including a BJP worker, had been hauling up suspects, including Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchantt.

However, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) swiftly contested the NCP’s allegation by saying two persons — Manish Bhanushali and Kiran Gosavi — identified by the political party were among nine “independent witnesses” and dubbed the charge as “baseless” to have been made “with malice and probable prejudice that may have been harboured in retaliation against earlier legal actions carried out by the NCB”.

At a news conference addressed earlier in the afternoon, Maharashtra Minister and NCP’s chief spokesperson Nawab Malik dubbed the

drug bust as “stage-managed” and “fake”.

“Not a single gram of drug was seized from the arrested persons during the raid. No panchanama was done... Television coverage and photographs showed a bearded and bespectacled Bhanushali, a BJP worker, was seen dragging out Merchant and the bald Gosavi was shown pulling Khan out of the International Cruise Terminal.

Charging that the photos and videos of the seized drugs released by the NCB were not taken from the cruise, but forged in the anti-drug agency’s zonal office, Malik alleged, “Bhanushali was in New Delhi and Gandhinagar (Gujarat) in the last week of September, especially on September 21 and 22 when a huge drug haul was made from the Mundhra Port.”

Malik said Bhanushali had posted his photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, State Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Devendra Fadnavis, plus current and former Central and State Ministers, and other senior BJP leaders. 

“The BJP should come clean and tell the people: Who is this person? How does he have access to such top people? The NCB must clarify in what capacity these two persons (Gosavi and Bhanushali) were seen during the so-called raid and arrests. Gosavi also has a criminal record in Pune… Is the NCB taking help of people with a criminal background to nab other accused?,” Malik asked.

Coming down heavily on the NCB, Malik contended that the entire (raid) operation was fraudulent and done with the sole purpose of hogging publicity.

“The BJP and NCB must come clean. Who are these two persons? Why were they seen in the so-called ship raid? What are the BJP’s connections with both of them?,” he asked.

“During the past few days, rumours are being circulated that Shah Rukh Khan will be the next target… You know the relations between him and the BJP,” Malik said.

In a related development, the NCB named nine “independent” witnesses (Panchas) associated with Saturday’s raid on Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast here. They are: Prabhakar Sail, Kiran Gosavi, Manish Bhanushali, Aubrey Gomez, Adil Usmani, V Waigankar, Aparna Rane, Prakash Bahadur, Shoaib Faiz and Muzammil Ibrahim. Incidentally, two of the nine named by the NCB - Bhanushali and Gosavi - are the ones identified by Malik.

Meanwhile,  Bhanushali told a Martathi channel that he had tipped the NCB off about the rave and had accompanied them as a “witness” to affix his signature on the relevant case papers. He also threatened to launch defamation proceedings against Malik.

On its part, the NCB said in all four follow-up seizures have been affected after the seizure from the Cruise following due procedure as per rules.

“Investigation of the case is in progress. Some allegations levelled against the organisation are baseless and seem to be with malice and probable prejudice that may have been harboured in retaliation against earlier legal actions carried out by NCB. NCB reiterates that it’s procedure has been and will continue to be professionally and legally transparent and unbiased,” the NCB said.

Elaborating on its Saturday’s operations, NCB’s Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh, said, “On the specific information, the team of NCB Mumbai raided at International Cruise Terminal, Green Gate Mumbai & Cordillia Cruise ship on 02.10.2021 and intercepted 8 persons namely Vikrant Chhokar, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Arbaaz A Merchant, Aryan Khan, Mohak Jaswal, Munmun Dhamecha and Nupur Satija on the spot.”

Singh said based on the information received from the accused Mohak Jaiswal, a team of NCB Mumbai had conducted a raid at Jogeshwari in north Mumbai and intercepted one person namely Abdul Kadir Shaikh with Ecstasy & commercial quantity of Mephedrone in his possession on October 3.

“Based on the preliminary interrogation of the accused Ishmeet Singh Chadha, a follow up operation was launched at Goregaon, Mumbai by the team of NCB Mumbai and intercepted  one namely Shreyas Surendra Nair along with charas on October 4,” Singh said.

According to Singh, the NCB subsequently intercepted Manish Rajgaria who was invited as guest in the ship and recovered Hydroponic Weed @Multi strain Cannabis. NCB Mumbai also arrested one AvinSahu who sailed in the Ship/Cruise Cordelia on consumption charges on October 4.

It may be recalled that twenty-three-year-old Aryan and seven others were initially detained on Saturday night and later arrested on Sunday, after the NCB officials busted a rave party and seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of MD (mephedrone), 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast here.

Meanwhile, the total number of persons arrested in connection with the mid-sea drug bust case went to 16, as the NCB sought and got the custody of four accused, Gopal Anand, Samir Saigal, Manav Singhal and Bhaskar Arora who are said to be the organisers of the rave party on the cruise.

A magistrate court in south Mumbai remanded the four accused to Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) custody till October 14 in the mid-sea drug bust case.

Seeking the custody of four persons, Special Public Prosecutor Advait Sethna argued that they were part of the team that had organised the rave party on board Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship. He said the two arrested accused were directors of Kin Plus Pvt Ltd while the other two are associated with it.

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