How high 25 crores were supposed to go, TMC leader on Aryan Khan-bribe case
Aryan Khan and those who were arrested from the cruise were brought to NCB office in KP Gosavi's private car, the FIR against Sameer Wankhede said.
The CBI has brought several charges against 2008-batch IRS officer Sameer Wankhede who during his stint in the Narcotics Control Bureau got Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan arrested from a cruise party in 2021. As the former NCB officer is now accused of demanding ₹25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan, Trinamool national spokesperson Saket Gokhale said the CBI has been brought in by the BJP government and "the pawns will be arrested while the masters will go scot free".

"The real question is how high up the food chain were the 25 crores supposed to go?" the Trinamool leader said.
In the FIR, it has been alleged that KP Gosavi, an independent witness, whose photo with Aryan Khan went viral after Aryan was arrested, was given a freehand and Gosavi planned to extort ₹25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan. After negotiation, the amount was brought down to ₹18 crore and ₹50 lakh was collected. Aryan Khan and others who were arrested on October 2, 2021, were brought to the NCB office in Gosavi's private vehicle. Gosavi got the opportunity to threaten Shah Rukh Khan because he came across as an NCB officer.
Sameer Wankhede has also been accused of making undisclosed foreign visits, transaction over expensive foreign watches.
Sameer Wankhede and the charges against him: All you need to know
1. Sameer Wankhede was the investigating officer of the drug angle of the Sushant Singh Rajput-Rhea Chakraborty case as well before Aryan Khan's arrest in 2021.
2. Aryan Khan was arrested on October 2, 2021, and spent 25 days in jail.
3. No evidence in support of Aryan Khan possessing drugs at the said party from where he was arrested was produced in court.
4. Sameer Wankhede's term with the NCB ended in 2021. His next posting was to Chennai as Director General of Analytics and Risk Management.
5. All charges against Aryan Khan were dropped later -- in 2022.
6. Sameer Wankhede came on the radar as corruption allegations against him surfaced.
7. NCP leader Nawab Malik claimed Sameer Wankhede got the government job through forged documents as he was a born Muslim. Nawab Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan was also arrested by the NCB when Sameer Wankhede was there.
8. Apart from caste document forgery, Nawab Malik alleged that there was a bar in Navi Mumbai in Sameer Wankhede's name.
9. Sameer Wankhede dismissed all the allegations and said he was being 'rewarded' for being a patriot.
10. Sameer Wankhede's wife actor Kranti Redkar also said all allegations are false.
ABOUT THE AUTHORPoulomi GhoshPoulomi Ghosh is a journalist with Hindustan Times, New Delhi.

E-Paper


