NCP’s Nawab Malik alleges kidnapping, extortion in Aryan Khan case

Malik alleged that Wankhede tried to kidnap Aryan Khan and framed him in a drug bust case after failing to get extortion money from his family

Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik again made a serious allegation against narcotics control bureau’s (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede. He alleged that Wankhede tried to kidnap Aryan Khan and framed him in a drug bust case after failing to get extortion money from his family. He also said that skeletons from Wankhede’s closet will come out and his private army will be exposed as the state government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate his allegations.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik (HT FILE PHOTO)

Wankhede and his team arrested Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and a few others for their alleged involvement in the cruise drugs party on October 2.

“I had demanded an S.I.T probe to investigate Sameer Dawood Wankhede for kidnapping & ransom demand from Aryan Khan. Now 2 SITs are constituted (state & centre), let us see who brings out the skeletons from the closet of Wankhede and exposes him and his nefarious private army,” Malik tweeted on Saturday morning.

“Wankhede tried to extort money after kidnapping Aryan Khan and later framed him in a drug bust case after his plans failed,” Malik told HT.

He was referring to a four-member team formed by the Mumbai police on October 27 to probe the allegations made by Prabhakar Sail, a key witness in the Aryan Khan case, and three others.

The team is headed by ACP Milind Khetle of the Azad Maidan division. It also comprises inspector Ajay Sawant (Colaba police station), sub-inspector Prakash Gawli (cyber police) and assistant inspector Shrikant Karkar (anti-narcotics cell). It is being supervised by additional commissioner of police Dilip Sawant and deputy commissioner of police Hemraj Singh Rajput.

Sail had alleged that he was forced to sign blank papers by Wankhede on the night of the raid and that the officer was part of a ₹25 crore extortion racket targeting Aryan Khan.

For the past three weeks, Malik has been levelling serious allegations against Wankhede and the NCB over their vigilance, discrepancies in investigation and the information related to the officer’s religion. Malik has raised serious questions over the handling of cruise drug bust accused Aryan Khan by Kiran Gosavi who is facing serious cases and a BJP office-bearer Manish Bhanushali. On November 2, he alleged Wankhede of extorting crores by forming a private army and using expensive clothes.

“Wankhede made a private army. Kiran Gosavi, Manish Bhanushali, Fletcher Patel, Adil Usmani, Sam D Souza, Illu Pathan among others were its players. It was involved in the drug business. Those in major business were allowed to run while actions were shown on small quantity cases and implicating people and extorted crores,” Malik had alleged.

On Friday, the NCB decided to transfer six cases, including that of Aryan Khan, to an SIT from Mumbai zonal unit following allegations and an internal vigilance probe against Wankhede. On Saturday, new investigating officer Sanjay Kumar Singh, however, said Sameer Wankhede’s assistance will be taken in all six cases as he is the director of the Mumbai unit.

“A Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officers from Operations Branch of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Headquarters has been constituted by the Director-General, NCB to take over a total of 06 cases from NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit which have national and international ramifications, in order to conduct a deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages,” a statement from Singh’s office said issued on Friday.