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Bombay HC asks CBI not to take ‘any coercive action’ against Sameer Wankhede till Monday
The central agency had accused Wankhede of allegedly demanding ₹25 crore from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan in the drug case.
The Bombay High Court on Friday directed former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on Saturday. It also asked the CBI not to take any “coercive action,” such as arrest, against former NCB zonal director.
Wankhede had moved the Bombay high court seeking the quashing of the FIR registered by the CBI against him. The central agency had accused him of allegedly demanding ₹25 crore from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan in the 2021 Cordelia drug bust case.
The CBI had also noted the findings of a special enquiry team of the NCB which had flagged several lapses in the probe of Aryan Khan drug case. The actor's son has already been exonerated from the case last year.
The probe team had noted that Prabhakar Sail (now deceased), the bodyguard of one witness KP Gosavi had claimed of several procedural lapses in the case. He had claimed to have heard Gosavi demanding ₹25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan for letting off his son from the stringent procedures of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
The special enquiry team had noted that the statements of witnesses had established that Aryan and his friend Arbaz Merchant were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle of KP Gosavi instead of the official car. The probe had also noted that the CCTV footage of the NCB Mumbai office on the days of this case had "gone corrupt" when the team had gone to collect it.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021 and spent 25 days in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail.
(With inputs from PTI)
