Extortion row: Mumbai Police records Prabhakar Sail statement, but NCB unable to contact him

An ACP-rank officer recorded a detailed statement of Sail, one of the panch witnesses in the NCB’s drugs bust case.

A team from the Mumbai Police on Wednesday recorded the statement of Prabhakar Sail, a witness of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs-on-cruise case, on his allegations of extortion against the agency and its Mumbai zone chief Sameer Wankhede. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is in jail in the alleged drugs bust case.

File image of Prabhakar Sail(File photo)

Sail has alleged he had overheard KV Gosavi, another witness of the NCb in the case, speaking over the phone about the ₹25 crore demand out of which " ₹8 crore is to be given to Wankhede" to let off Aryan. Sail has claimed to be a former driver/bodyguard of Gosavi, a private detective, according to the NCB's records.

The Mumbai Police recorded the statement of Sail on a day the NCB’s vigilance team said it was unable to contact Sail and Gosavi to join its investigation that it is separately conducting into the allegations.

NCB's deputy director-general Gyaneshwar Singh, who is heading the vigilance probe, said, "We have tried our best to contact them but could not. Through the media I would like to tell them they are free to join in two days and give evidence to special inquiry team which has been staying at CRPF mess at Bandra (West)."

In a statement, police said an ACP-rank officer recorded a detailed statement of Sail, one of the panch witnesses in the NCB’s drugs bust case.

Sail reportedly said the NCB had not approached him for recording his statement and he was ready to share all information with them.

Earlier, Singh said the NCB had requested its South West region office to serve notices to the key witnesses - Sail and Gosavi. "An NCB team tried to serve notices to both the witnesses, but found the residence of one of them locked while the other witness cannot be contacted," the DDG said.