They catch a celebrity, click photos and make noise: Uddhav Thackeray's dig at NCB after Aryan Khan's arrest
Where is Mundra port where drugs worth crores of rupees were seized, Uddhav Thackeray asked in his Dusshera speech, in his first comment after the arrest of Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in a drugs case.
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in his Dusshera speech this year trained the gun at the Narcotic Control Bureau without taking its name and said that while the agency is recovering a little quantity of drugs, the Maharashtra cops have recovered drugs worth ₹150 crore. "All they are interested in is to catch celebrities, get their pictures clicked and make some noise," Uddhav Thackeray said in his first comment regarding the ongoing drugs issue in Mumbai after the arrest of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in connection with a cruise rave party.
"They have painted a picture that Maharashtra has become a drug capital. That is not the case. In Mundra, there was a drug haul of crores. While your agencies are recovering pinch of ganja, the Maharashtra cops have recovered drugs worth ₹150 crore. You are interested in is to catch celebrities and get their pictures clicked," Uddhav said.
The chief minister said that there is an attempt to defame Maharashtra, to project a picture of Maharashtra as if it is the hub of drugs. "Maharashtra is being looked at through a different lens. While we are being targetted, why are places like Uttar Pradesh, where rapes happen, not criticised as well?" Uddhav said adding that politicians who have now lost power are trying to malign the state's image like 'rejected lovers sometimes throw acid on a girl who spurns them'. "If they call the Mumbai Police ‘mafia’, then what will you term the UP Police?” he said.
Since Sushant Singh Rajput's death last year, Bollywood has come on the radar of the NCB for its alleged nexus of drug dealing. Apart from actor Rhear Chakraborty, scores of Bollywood actors, including Deepika Padukone, have been summoned by the NCB for interrogation; many have been detained and arrested. NCB's latest raid on a cruise rave party is now in the news as Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan has been arrested in connection with the case. The agency has made so far 20 arrests in the case, while it is probing other Bollywood-drugs cases parallelly.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik has earlier pointed out several alleged loopholes in NCB's operation which the agency refuted and clarified. This is the first time after Aryan Khan's arrest that Uddhav broached the issue.
The NCB has recovered 6 gram of charas from Aryan Khan's friend Arbaaz Merchant, who was arrested along with Khan. Mocking the quantity of the drugs recovered by the NCB, Udhhav Thackeray said the state police have been recovering drugs worth crores of rupees while the NCB is only after celebrities.