Aryan Khan drugs case: NCB 'needle of suspicion' on some officers over lapses in probe
Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Oct, 2022 11:20 AM
Mumbai, Oct 18 (IANS) A Special Investigation Team of the Narcotics Control Bureau has detected lapses into the probe against Aryan Khan - the son of megastar Shah Rukh Khan -in the cruiser drugs case and has pointed the "needle of suspicion" on at least 7-8 officers.
Sources said that the SIT findings have been submitted to the NCB headquarters in New Delhi - nearly six months after Aryan Khan and others got a 'clean chit' in the case in May.
The report is understood to have detailed how Aryan Khan was deliberately targeted in the entire affair, the shoddy manner in which the entire probe into the cruiser drugs case was done, with many shortcomings in the investigation perpetrated by the NCB officers assigned to the sensitive case - which grabbed global headlines in October 2021.
Apparently, the probe was pushed ahead even though there was not sufficient evidence, and statements of some five dozen persons were recorded multiple times as they kept changing their versions.
The NCB sources said the conduct of around 7-8 officers was found to be suspicious in this case and some other drugs bust cases, for which a departmental probe has been recommended.
The NCB, led by its then Mumbai head Sameer Wankhede had carried out a high-profile raid on the cruise ship off Mumbai harbour last October and arrested 20 persons including Aryan Khan.
After a huge controversy, the probe was taken over by a NCB team from Delhi and Wankhede was transferred.
Contrary to expectations, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is expected to spend another night in the Arthur Road Central Jail as his bail orders could not reach the prison authorities by the stipulated time of 5.30 p.m. on Friday.
'Sardar Udham' is an epic biographical historical drama that documents the life of freedom revolutionary Udham Singh, who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar.
After 27 days, in a major relief, the Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha who were nabbed in the cruise ship rave party raided by the Narcotics Control Bureau.
Senior counsel and former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi and senior counsel Amit Desai, representing Aryan and Arbaaz Merchant, while lawyer Ali Kaashik Khan Deshmukh appeared for Munmun Dhamecha, concluded their argument before Justice N. W. Sambre.
Mumbai NCB arrested Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan in the cruise drug case investigation on October 2. Prabhakar Sail, the 'independent witness', in a statement to the media, claimed that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an official of the NCB and other persons, including absconding witness K.P. Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan in the case.
Making a forceful plea for bail to Aryan Khan, his lawyer and former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the star-son was a special invitee to the ship through event manager Prateek Gaba.
