Drugs-on-cruise case: NCB records statement of Fletcher Patel

The senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik had tweeted a few days ago, attaching the front page of three separate panchnamas signed by Fletcher Patel as a panch witness

The vigilance team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday recorded the statement of Fletcher Patel, a Dadar resident who has served in 17 years in the Indian Army. Patel was a panch in a few cases registered by the NCB previously.

Nawab Malik had alleged that Fletcher Patel was also a friend of NCB’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede. Patel was a panch in a few cases registered by the NCB previously. (PTI)

The senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik had tweeted a few days ago, attaching the front page of three separate panchnamas signed by Patel as a panch witness. Malik had alleged that Patel was also a friend of NCB’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede.

“Vigilance team of NCB had summoned me and accordingly, I appeared before the team in Bandra,” said Patel. “They only asked me regarding a case number 94/21 — the cruise drug bust case in which Aryan Khan has been arrested. But I am not a witness in that particular case,” he added.

He added that the NCB vigilance team asked him a few more questions, as to how I came in contact with Wankhede and that he replied that a few years ago we met at a function through a common friend. Being an ex-serviceman, whenever asked, I extend help to various government agencies, he added.

The NCB vigilance team on Thursday also interviewed and recorded the statement of advocate RB Gupta, the notary before whom Prabhakar Sail, a panch witness in the cruise ship drug bust case, has affirmed his revealing affidavit. The vigilance team visited Gupta’s office at Wadala in the afternoon and brought him to CISF Mess at Bandra to record his statement, said an NCB officer.

NCB has initiated the vigilance enquiry after Sail, who claims to be the personal guard of Kiran Gosavi - a key witness in the cruise drug bust case revealed in a notarised affidavit that he overheard Gosavi talking to another person about ₹18-crore deal, of which ₹8 crore was alleged to be paid to Wankhede.

Sail also alleged that as per the direction of Gosavi, he collected two bags containing ₹50 lakh from an individual after the raid at the cruise ship and handed the bags over to Gosavi at his residence in Vashi. Subsequently, he handed over an amount of ₹38 lakh to another person.

Sail was present at Green Gate when the NCB team led by Wankhede searched guests set to board a holiday cruise set to sail for Goa. He claimed that all the panchnamas were recorded at the NCB office, where the agency’s officers took his signatures on several blank papers.

On Wednesday, one more panch witness in another NCB case has revealed that the agency officials had forced him to sign some blank papers, some of which were used to prepare panchnama.