Mumbai5 hours ago
There has been a big disclosure in Bollywood’s most talked-about Cordelia Cruz drugs case. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) SIT has not found any evidence that Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was part of an international drug trafficking syndicate.
The English newspaper Hindustan Times, quoting sources, has claimed that there is no evidence of Aryan’s involvement in any conspiracy of drugs. After this report surfaced, NCB director Sameer Wankhede, who initially led the investigation, is also under the scanner. Before investigating this high profile case, you can give your opinion on it here.
During the SIT investigation, many irregularities have also been found in the raid on the cruise. This SIT was formed after the allegations leveled by cabinet minister Nawab Malik against NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
Investigation not yet completed
However, the paper claimed that the SIT probe is yet to be completed and NCB Director General SN Pradhan may take a few months to submit his final report. Legal opinion will be taken before submitting the final report, especially on whether Aryan Khan can be accused of consumption.
It was only after this picture of Kiran Gosavi and Aryan Khan, the witnesses of this case, came to the fore that Nawab Malik first accused Sameer Wankhede.
Question mark on the way Wankhede works
The SIT report has also raised question marks on the working methods of former Mumbai zone director Sameer Wankhede. Wankhede has been removed from NCB and sent back to his parent cadre i.e. DRI. During the investigation, the SIT team has recorded Wankhede’s statement several times. The SIT team has also taken statements of many accused, witnesses and eyewitnesses related to this case.
Drugs recovered from cruise
Sameer Wankhede along with his team at Cordelia Cruises conducted several hours of raids at the International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai on the night of 2 October 2021. NCB had recovered 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash from here. The investigation revealed that 14 people were apprehended by the agency from Cruise and after several hours of interrogation, Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmum Dhamecha were shown to be arrested on the afternoon of 3 October. After this gradually 17 more people were arrested in this case.
The High Court had also said almost the same thing
Significantly, the preliminary findings of the SIT investigation corroborate the observations of the Bombay High Court, which on October 28 last year, while granting bail to Khan, said that the NCB report did not show any conspiracy or the recovery of drugs from Aryan’s possession. have met.
Drugs case came in the hands of such SIT
NCB’s SIT team is probing the Cruise drugs case, Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan’s drugs case and actor Armaan Kohli’s case. After Aryan’s arrest in the cruise drugs case, Maharashtra’s Minority Welfare Minister Nawab Malik came before the media and revealed that it was already a targeted raid and Sameer Wankhede used private people to extort money.
After this, he also made allegations about the religion and caste of Wankhede. Malik had also accused his son-in-law of implicating him in a false case. After continuous allegations against Wankhede, NCB constituted SIT in this case and handed over 6 cases to him. However, the SIT later dropped three cases. These cases are being investigated by Sanjay Singh, DDG (Operations) of NCB.
The biggest proof of WhatsApp chat
According to the SIT report, after the raid, the Wankhede team claimed that the accused were part of a larger conspiracy, considering the WhatsApp chat as the biggest evidence. He alleged that Aryan Khan was in contact with some foreign drug peddlers. The evidence contained chats produced in court that mentioned “hard drugs” and “bulk quantity”.
However, dismissing the claims of the NCB, a single bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre of the Bombay High Court had observed that the NCB did not have sufficient evidence to prove any conspiracy. The judge had said that Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha were on the ship only because they cannot be said to be part of a drugs racket.