‘Question isn't who was there or not there’: Devendra Fadnavis hits back at NCP’s claims

Fadnavis also claimed that Malik has been criticising NCB because it “arrested his direct relative in a drug-related case”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis hit back at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik’s allegations that the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) is being “used by the BJP to malign the Maharashtra government and Bollywood”. Fadnavis insisted that the issue is of drugs and not any political affiliation.

"Evidence says drugs were coming in and a drug party was going on the cruise,” Devendra Fadnavis told reporters. (HT file)

“The question isn't who was there or not there; if they were affiliated with BJP or not. Question is whether a drug party was going on in the cruise, and if indeed it was, would Nawab Malik support it, why doesn’t he talk about that,?” Fadnavis told reporters on Wednesday.

“Evidence says drugs were coming in and a drug party was going on the cruise,” he added.

Popular Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested by NCB from the cruise along with Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha on Sunday after it carried out a raid in a cruise off the coast of Mumbai.

Fadnavis also claimed that Malik has been criticising NCB because it “arrested his direct relative in a drug-related case”. The leader of the Opposition was referring to the arrest of Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in connection with the seizure of 200 kilograms of marijuana after the agency arrested British national Karan Sejnani from Khar and two sisters Rahila and Shaista Furniturewala from Bandra on January 9.

Khan and his co-accused were granted bail by a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court on September 27, after his counsel argued that substances seized from Khan were only tobacco and herbal products and not covered under the NDPS Act.

Malik alleged on Wednesday that the two men seen escorting Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant to NCB’s Mumbai office were private individuals and not officers. He said at a press conference in Mumbai that one of the men is Manish Bhanushali who claims to be a BJP office-bearer and the other is KP Gosawi, who claims to be a private detective based out of Kualalumpur. He also played a recording of Khan and Merchant’s arrest.

“According to the Bhanushali’s Facebook page, he is a BJP vice president and has photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and other senior leaders including those from Maharashtra such as Devendra Fadnavis and Ashish Shelar,” Malik told reporters at party headquarters at Ballard Pier in South Mumbai.

NCB deputy director-general Gyaneshwar Singh, however, told reporters that both Bhanushali and Gosawi were two of the nine independent witnesses and the agency had carried out the raid while following proper legal provisions.