Sameer Wankhede tells Bombay HC he never sought bribe from Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son Aryan Khan in drugs case

Sameer Wankhede was accused of demanding a ₹25 crore bribe in the 2021 case related to the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a money laundering case against former zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, in 2024, who was accused of demanding ₹25 crore bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not framing his son Aryan Khan in a drug case in October 2021. As per the latest update on news agency PTI, Sameer Wankhede told the Bombay High Court on Monday (March 23) that he never demanded or accepted a bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son, Aryan Khan, following the latter's arrest in a cruise drugs case.

Sameer Wankhede (left), Shah Rukh Khan and son Aryan (right)

What the counsel told Bombay High Court

Sameer Wankhede's counsel, Aabad Ponda, was arguing the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer's plea seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in May 2023 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of corruption and bribery. He told a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam that Wankhede never demanded or took a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan.

Aabad Ponda told the court on Monday that the CBI has no evidence to establish that Wankhede demanded or received any bribe. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had received a tip-off about alleged drugs on the cruise ship Cordelia. A search was conducted in accordance with the law and a few persons, including Aryan Khan, were arrested, the counsel added.

It was alleged in the CBI first information report (FIR) filed on May 11, 2023, which names as accused Wankhede, former SP of NCB - Vishwa Vijay Singh, intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan, and two private persons – Kiran Gosavi and Sanville D’Souza, that ₹25 crore was demanded from Shah Rukh Khan in return of for not framing his son, Aryan in the October 2021 Cordelia drug case. The bribe demand was reduced to ₹18 crore by the accused persons.

When was Aryan Khan arrested?

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3, 2021, a day after the controversial raid on Cordelia cruise in Mumbai. A special investigation team (SIT) formed by the NCB gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan on May 27 last year saying he was not part of any larger drug-dealing racket as alleged by Wankhede.

NCB’s internal probe revealed that names of Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant were included at the last moment in the “information note” of the agency. Besides, procedures such as documentation of seizure of phones, and the recording of statements were not done properly by Wankhede’s team, the investigation found.

(via inputs from PTI)