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NCB cop part of Aryan Khan raid removed from service over another case
SP Vishwa Vijay Singh, who was part of the team that raided the Cordelia cruise ship in October 2021 and arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan, has been removed from the agency in an unrelated case
NEW DELHI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has removed from service its superintendent of police (SP) Vishwa Vijay Singh, who was part of the team that raided the Cordelia cruise ship in October 2021 and arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, among others, people familiar with the development said on Thursday.
To be sure, the officer has been removed from the agency in an unrelated case, and not Aryan Khan probe.
Singh was already under suspension since April last year while an enquiry was being carried out in NCB regarding his conduct. “The enquiry was recently completed in a separate case, also related to misconduct, after which a decision was taken to remove him from the service,” said an officer, declining to be named.
NCB director general Satya Narayan Pradhan confirmed the development.
When contacted, Singh said: “I don’t want to comment on it. The matter is pending with the ministry of home affairs (MHA).”
A separate vigilance enquiry into the allegations levelled against NCB’s Mumbai team, led by former zonal director Sameer Wankhede, in the Cordelia raids was completed in November last year, based on which a departmental action was referred against seven officers. The findings of the enquiry have not been made public.
Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer who has since been transferred from NCB, led a team of officers, including Singh, and some witnesses on the night of October 2, 2021 to raid Cordelia ship at the International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate off the Mumbai coast.
NCB claimed to have seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash from the vessel. It also intercepted 14 people, and after hours of interrogation, placed Aryan Khan (24), Arbaaz Merchant (26), and Munmum Dhamecha (28) under arrest on October 3. Subsequently, the agency arrested 17 more people in connection with the raid.
Relying on WhatsApp chats, Wankhede’s team had claimed the accused were part of a larger conspiracy. It alleged that Aryan Khan was in touch with some foreign drug supplier and the chats referred to “hard drugs” and “bulk quantities”. However, rejecting NCB’s claims, a single bench of justice Nitin W Sambre of the Bombay high court noted in October last year that there was no evidence to suggest existence of any conspiracy.
HT was first to report that a special investigation team (SIT), headed by deputy director general Sanjay Kumar Singh, formed by NCB to reinvestigate the raids, did not find evidence to suggest that the actor’s son was part of a larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs trafficking syndicate. The SIT also found several irregularities in the dramatic raid.
The SIT filed a charge sheet against 14 people in May last year but gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, saying that the actor’s son was never in possession of drugs hence there was no need to take his phone and check his chats. The chats also did not suggest Khan was part of any international syndicate.
Wankhede was transferred to the office of director general of taxpayers’ services (DGTS) in Chennai.
