The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), part of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, on Friday came out in support of its jailed leader Nawab Malik after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, in the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case.
NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said the central agency clearing Aryan’s name from the case proves that Malik "was right when he had said that the case was fake".
Last year, a political storm erupted after an NCB team, led by its then Mumbai chief Sameer Wankhade, conducted a raid on the Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship and arrested 20 people, including Aryan. During the raid, the NCB seized various drugs, including cocaine, mephedrone, marijuana and MDMA (Ecstasy) along with cash worth more than ₹1 lakh. The Bollywood superstar’s son spent almost four weeks in jail after finally getting bail on October 30.
Around this time, Malik launched a diatribe against the NCB and accused Wankhede of extortion and other irregularities. Months later, Malik was jailed in a money laundering case linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Also Read | Aryan Khan gets clean chit in drugs case. Who were chargesheeted?| Full list
{{/usCountry}}Also Read | Aryan Khan gets clean chit in drugs case. Who were chargesheeted?| Full list
{{/usCountry}}The federal anti-narcotics bureau, under Wankhede, had interrogated and arrested several Bollywood personalities regarding their involvement in drugs.
"Whatever Malik said holds ground. Witnesses had claimed that they were made to sign on blank papers and there were financial transactions involved. Sameer Wankhede is answerable to the people of this country," Tapase said.
NCP leader Clyde Crasto also hailed the NCB for giving clean chit to Aryan and asked who will take responsibility for the trauma that the 24-year-old went through during the investigation. "If Aryan Khan was clean, why was he tainted? What was the motive? Who will be held responsible for the trauma this young man suffered? Many questions arise," Crasto was quoted as saying by PTI.
The Congress, also an ally of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), said the case was part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. "We were saying from day one that the case was part of a larger conspiracy to destabilise the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government (of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress)," a party leader said.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also hailed the news, adding “truth prevails”. She hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for trying to 'demonise' Maharashtra by 'misusing central agencies'. She also said that she is waiting for the Central Bureau of Investigation to submit its report on the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
"One tight slap on fraud PR created Singham, the news media channels who work in the service of BJP, the BJP actress- spokesperson, those who tried to demonise Maharashtra through misusing central agencies. Truth prevails. Now waiting for CBI to submit its closure report on SSR," she put out on Twitter.