Sought court nod to take KP Gosavi’s statement: NCB official

NCB deputy director general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh said on Friday that the team has sought the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court’s permission to record the statement of KP Gosavi

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) deputy director general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh, who is leading a departmental vigilance probe into the extortion allegations against NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, and four other officers, said on Friday that the team has sought the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court’s permission to record the statement of KP Gosavi, an independent witness in the cruise ship drug raid case.

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) deputy director general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh said on Friday that the team has sought the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court’s permission to record the statement of KP Gosavi.

The five-member special enquiry team arrived in Mumbai on October 27, four days after Prabhakhar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise ship raid and an employee of Gosavi, released a notarised affidavit claiming that Wankhede was part of an extortion attempt of ₹25 crore.

Gosavi was arrested by the Pune police on October 28 in connection with a 2018 cheating case. On Thursday, a different police station in Pune took custody of Gosavi in a separate case.

“We approached the court for recording the statement of Gosavi, who in the custody of Pune police in a cheating case registered against him in 2018,” Singh told reporters gathered outside the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) office in Bandra, Mumbai, on Friday. He added that more people will be called in to record their statement based on what Gosavi said.

Wankhede had conducted a raid on a cruise ship, Cordelia, docked off the coast of Mumbai, on October 2, following which 20 persons were arrested including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan (23). Wankhede was removed from the investigation — but retained his position and continued to assist in the case — after the vigilance team began its probe.

In the affidavit, Sail claimed to have overheard a phone call between Gosavi and a certain Sam D’Souza. “You put a bomb of 25 crores and let’s settle at 18 final, because we have to give 8 crores to Sameer Wankhede,” Gosavi reportedly said, the affidavit stated.

“The vigilance team has recorded statements of 15 people, including Sameer Wankhede, VV Singh and three other NCB officers who were present at the October 2 raid. There are few important witnesses who need to be examined and we will record their statements soon,” Singh said.

He said that the team has also questioned 10 other people including Sailand the lawyer who notarised the affidavit. “The team has procured electronic and documentary evidence," Singh said.

“We have visited the crime scene and reconstructed events. Mumbai police has cooperated with us. They have assured their support. We have gathered a few CCTV evidence during enquiry,” he added.

Aryan Khan questioned by NCB

A separate NCB special investigation team (SIT) constituted to investigate the cruise ship raid case interrogated Aryan Khan on Friday.

Aryan also visited the NCB office in south Mumbai to mark his weekly attendance as per the bail condition set by the Bombay high court,which granted him bail on October 28.

The SIT headed by deputy director general Sanjay Singh, was formed on November 5 to investigate the cruise drug bust case and five other cases including one involving Sameer Khan, the son-law of state minister Nawab Malik, who has alleged that the October 2 raid was an attempt to “kidnap” Aryan for “ransom” and Wankhede was purportedly part of this plot.

Aryan visited NCB office for the first time after he was released from Arthur Road jail on October 30, after spending 22 days in custody. Earlier, the SIT had summoned Aryan and co-accused Arbaaz Merchant.