No drugs were found on Aryan Khan, claims Sam D'Souza: Report
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmum Dhamecha on October 3 in connection with the drugs-on-cruise case.
The man, whose name cropped up in connection with the pay-off allegations surrounding the drugs-on-cruise case, on Monday claimed that he was told by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) witness KP Gosavi that no drugs were found on Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, during the agency’s raid in October.
"In the wee hours of October 3, I came to know that the celebrity who was caught on the ship was Aryan Khan. That time Aryan told Gosavi that he wanted to talk to his manager Pooja Dadlani. Gosavi conveyed Aryan's message. That time Gosavi told me that Aryan Khan was clean and no drugs were found in his possession. He said we can help him (Aryan Khan)," D'Souza claimed, according to PTI.
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D'Souza said he, Gosavi, Pooja Dadlani, her husband and a man called Chikki Pandey then met at Lower Parel area of Mumbai, reported PTI. D'Souza added that he later came to know through a man called Sunil Patil that a "token amount" of ₹50 lakh is being paid.
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According to the news agency, D'Souza also claimed that NCB officials are not corrupt. He added that Gosavi, who has been arrested in a connection with a cheating case, and Prabhakar Sail, another independent witness in the drugs-on-cruise case, were calling each other over the phone by saving NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhade's name in their mobile phones to pretend as if he was in touch with them.
Sail claimed and filed an affidavit last month that he overheard Gosavi discussing a ₹25 crore deal with Sam D'Souza over the phone in connection with the drugs case of which ₹8 crore was meant to be paid to Sameer Wankhede. Wankhede has dismissed all allegations against him as "baseless" and said he conducted a fair probe in the cruise drugs case.
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Sail claims to be the bodyguard of Gosavi, who was recently arrested by the Pune Police in a fraud case pending against him. Gosavi's photograph with Aryan Khan inside the NCB raids surfaced raising several questions.
The five-member team, headed by NCB deputy director general of the northern region, Gyaneshwar Singh, is probing Wankhede and others following Sail's claims of the payoff.
Officials have said that the NCB special team has recorded the statements of eight people, including Wankhede, and collected some important documents and recordings related to the cruise drugs case. However, the team failed to record the statements of Sail and Gosavi.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmum Dhamecha on October 3. The 23-year-old, who spent 22 days in jail, is out on bail.