Cruise drug raid case: Mumbai Police SIT records statement of Sam D’Souza

Mumbai Police’s SIT on Monday recorded the statement of Sam D’Souza a middleman that purportedly helped Gosavi and team get in touch with actor Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani in the cruise drug raid case

A special investigation team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police, formed to inquire into extortion allegations levelled by witness Prabhakar Sail, against the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede and controversial witness Kiran Gosavi, on Monday recorded the statement of Sam D’Souza, a middleman that purportedly helped Gosavi and team get in touch with actor Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani.

Mumbai Police’s SIT on Monday recorded the statement of Sam D’Souza a middleman that purportedly helped Gosavi and team get in touch with actor Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani in the Aryan Khan cruise drug raid case. (Pratik Chorge/HT PHOTO)

Under the pretext of shielding Aryan Khan from the cruise drugs bust case, Gosavi and others allegedly extorted ₹50 lakh from Dadlani, but later returned the same, as things didn’t go according to their plan, D’Souza has claimed.

D’Souza visited the office of assistant commissioner of police Milind Khetle, the head of the SIT, at around 1pm. He was questioned for more than five hours and his detailed account was recorded by the SIT officers.

D’Souza earlier claimed before media that he only facilitated the meeting between panch witness Gosavi and Dadlani. He had also approached the Bombay high court (HC), apprehending arrest by the SIT. The high court, however, had rejected his anticipatory bail application.

While seeking anticipatory bail, D’Souza had claimed that one Sunil Patil had called and informed him that two persons — Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali — would call him for NCB contacts. D’Souza further stated that on October 2, he was at a hotel 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.

His 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.

According to D’Souza, Gosavi informed him that Aryan was innocent and was not found in possession of any drugs. 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 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. Gosavi said that he can help Aryan get out of this situation. Thereafter, Gosavi and Dadlani had a discussion and we were asked to stay away. They said the conversation was confidential,” claimed D’Souza’s application.

On October 3, when he saw the viral photo of Gosavi with Aryan and news reports about the case, he realised that Gosavi was a fraud. He called Patil, who in turn told him that Gosavi had taken ₹50 lakh from Dadlani through Sail. D’Souza claimed that he, thereafter, connected to Patil and Gosavi and recovered the money and returned it to Dadlani, through her husband.

SIT had, in the past, summoned Dadlani, but she didn’t appear before the police citing health issues.

D’Souza was earlier questioned by the five-member special enquiry team (SET), headed by NCB deputy director-general of the northern region, Gyaneshwar Singh. The NCB SET is also probing the allegations of payoffs.