NCB vigilance team quizzes Sail over pay-off charge

The NCB instituted a vigilance probe (referred to as a special enquiry team) under Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh on October 25, following the allegations made in a notarised affidavit filed by Sail on October 23.

Prabhakar Sail, a key witness in the cruise ship drug raid case, was questioned by the vigilance team of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Monday.

Prabhakar Sail arrives at CRPF Camp Bandra in Mumbai on Monday. (Vijay Bate/HT PHOTO)

Sail, who made his first appearance before the agency, was questioned in the Central Reserve Police Force’s mess in Bandra (West). He was accompanied by his lawyer Tushar Khandare.

The NCB instituted a vigilance probe (referred to as a special enquiry team) under Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh on October 25, following the allegations made in a notarised affidavit filed by Sail on October 23.

In the affidavit, Sail claimed to have overheard a phone call between his employer Kiran P Gosavi — another witness in the cruise ship drug raid case — and 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 told a certain person named Sam D’Souza, the affidavit stated.

Wankhede, the NCB Mumbai zonal director, had led the drug raid on the cruise ship, Cordelia, and subsequently arrested 20 persons in connection with the raid, including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan (23). 

The vigilance team arrived in Mumbai on October 27 and has recorded the statement of eight persons, including Wankhede and investigating officer V.V Singh.

Wankhede was removed from the drug raid case on November 5, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of NCB Delhi led by Sanjay Singh took over the investigation of this case and five other cases.

The vigilance team led by Gyaneshwar Singh visited the cruise ship and Tardeo, the area where Sail reportedly collected two bags containing ₹50 lakh from Shah Rukh’s manager Pooja Dadlani, as per the allegations made in his affidavit. The team also verified the place in Lower Parel where Dadlani, Sam D’Souza and Gosavi reportedly met to discuss the purported exchange of money.

Wankhede has denied all allegations made in the affidavit as being baseless.

The vigilance probe team left for Delhi on October 30 after Sail failed to turn up for recording his statement before them. On October 28, the NCB wrote a letter to the Mumbai Police Commissioner requesting him to ask Sail, who had appeared before a Mumbai police SIT (formed on October 28 to probe the allegations of corruption against Wankhede, Gosavi and others mentioned in Sail’s affidavit).

However, Sail did not appear before the NCB and the team left for Delhi on October 30. It returned to Mumbai on Monday and questioned Sail.

Gosavi was arrested by Pune city police in a cheating case registered in 2018 and currently in custody of Pune police.

In his affidavit, Sail claimed that at 9.45 am on October 3 -- the day after the raid on the cruise ship Cordelia and hours before Aryan Khan and his friends were produced before a holiday magistrate -- Gosavi had met Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, Pooja Dadlani, along with Sam D’Souza outside Big Bazaar at Lower Parel. Sail’s affidavit stated that he was with Gosavi in an Innova, Sam D’Souza was in a separate vehicle that followed Gosavi’s, and Dadlani was in a Blue Mercedes.

Gosavi and Sam met Dadlani in her car and left after about 15 minutes. Later in the day, when Sail and Gosavi were at the latter’s Vashi residence, Gosavi asked Sail to go to Tardeo and “collect cash of ₹50 lakh,” the affidavit stated. At a signal in Tardeo, a person driving a white car handed over two bags with money to Sail.

Sail brought the money back to Gosavi’s Vashi residence. In the evening, Sail said that Gosavi asked him to hand the cash to Sam D’Souza. Sail gave these bags to Sam D’Souza at a five-star hotel where the latter counted the cash and found it to be ₹38 lakh.