Bombay HC rejects Sam D’Souza’s pre-arrest bail plea

In his application moved before the vacation bench of justice SP Tavade, D’Souza through advocate Arun Rajput has stated that as he is the only earning member of the family he should be served a notice of three working days before any coercive action is taken against him.

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Sam D’Souza who claims to have only facilitated the meeting between panch witness Kiran Gosavi and Pooja Dadlani, the manager of Shah Rukh Khan, to help release Aryan Khan in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) cruise drug bust case. D’Souza had approached the HC, apprehending his arrest by the special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police. The SIT has been set up to probe the allegation of extortion against NCB officers and others.

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Sam D’Souza.

In his application moved before the vacation bench of justice SP Tavade, D’Souza through advocate Arun Rajput has stated that as he is the only earning member of the family he should be served a notice of three working days before any coercive action is taken against him. While the bench asked Rajput to state his client’s case and keep the late hour in mind, Rajput tried to tell the court that his client was not arraigned as an accused by the SIT in its probe as Aryan and others had got bail and there were allegations against NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede.

The court then observed that as D’souza had not approached the sessions court first, his application was rejected.

Sam D’Souza has stated in his application that both Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail, the bodyguard of Gosavi, are frauds and the main conspirators in the alleged extortion case against NCB officers being investigated by the Mumbai Police SIT. The application stated that when he realised that Gosavi and Sail were frauds, he ensured that an amount of Rs50 lakh which Dadlani had allegedly paid was returned to her through her husband. D’Souza has further stated that Wankhede had no role in the alleged deal attributed between him and Gosavi by Sail. In an affidavit filed last month, Sail alleged Gosavi had asked D’souza over the phone to strike a deal of Rs25 crore with Dadlani for releasing Aryan Khan. Sail had alleged in the affidavit that the duo had agreed to settle the deal at Rs18 crore, of which Rs8 crore would be paid to Wankhede.

In the ABA, D’Souza has stated that Sunil Patil had called him and told him that two persons, Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali, would call him for contacts with the NCB. Thereafter, Gosavi called him on October 1 and said that he was leaving from Ahmedabad for Mumbai and the next day Gosavi said that he had contacted NCB officers.

D’souza has further stated that on October 2, he was at Taj Presidency at Fort when Patil called him and informed him that some influential person had been arrested for drugs and wanted D’Souza to verify the name of the person. The application stated that he then went to Green Gate with an associate in a Toyota Innova Crysta car but did not know who the influential person was. There Gosavi and Bhanushali thanked him for helping them connect to NCB officials and also informed him that the influential person arrested was Aryan Khan.

The application further stateD that Gosavi informed D’Souza that Aryan was innocent and did not have any drugs in his possession and as he wanted to help Aryan, D’Souza should contact Dadlani. Thereafter, D’souza contacted Dadlani through a mutual friend, a hotelier and met her at Lower Parel in the early hours of October 3. When Dadlani who was along with her husband said she was the decision maker, D’Souza introduced Gosavi and Dadlani.

“Kiran Gosavi showed her a list in which Aryan Khan’s name was not present and said that he can help Aryan get out of this situation. Gosavi and Dadlani were discussing and we were asked to stay away because they were confidential and scared to speak in public and hence, we were not part of any discussion that happened between them,” claimED the application of D’Souza.

The application further states that on October 3 when he saw the viral photo of Gosavi with Aryan and news reports stated that Gosavi was a fraud he called Patil who told him that Giosavi had taken ₹50 lakh from Dadlani through Sail.

“The applicant saw that Kiran had saved mobile no. as SW2, thereby showing that he was connected with top NCB officials. However, the Truecaller pop up showed the name of Prabhakar Sail... After coming to know that Kiran Gosavi was a fraud, the applicant’s only motive was to recover the money and save his image... Therefore, he connected Sunil Patil and Kiran Gosavi and recovered the money and return it to Pooja Dadlani, through her husband,” the application stated.