The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has dropped Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, and five others from its chargesheet filed in the Mumbai cruise raid case with officials pointing to “lack of sufficient evidence” and “shortcomings” in the probe - from no video of searches, dodgy witnesses and improper seizure of phones to no medical test for those apprehended.
Aryan and 19 others were arrested by the NCB’s Mumbai zonal unit in October last year on charges that they were all “intrinsically connected” after several of them were rounded up by a team led by the central agency’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede during a raid on a docked cruise ship.
The NCB had arrested Aryan on the basis of chats claimed to have been found on a phone seized from him. Following the raid on October 2, Aryan was formally arrested the next day and granted bail on October 29 - after he had spent over three weeks in jail.
The NCB said in a statement: “SIT (Special Investigation Team) carried out its investigation in an objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest six persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence.”
Speaking to reporters, NCB Director-General S N Pradhan confirmed that the names of Aryan and five others were not included in the 6,000-page chargesheet filed in a Mumbai court. “There were shortcomings in the investigations. There was no corroborative physical evidence to support the allegations,” he said.
Sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the Government has recommended action against Wankhede for “shoddy investigation” in the case. Action has also been initiated in connection with a separate allegation linking him to a fake caste certificate, sources said.
Detailing the agency’s findings, SIT chief and NCB Deputy Director-General (Operations) Sanjay Singh said: “There was no video recording of the searches done by the investigating team. Most of the people were arrested on the basis of confessions. No medical test was done on anyone to prove whether they consumed drugs.”
Singh said: “A basic premise was given that Aryan’s friend Arbaaz Merchant (who was also arrested) had the drugs. But Arbaaz never said he had brought it for Aryan, nor was there any evidence to prove the same. In fact, Aryan had told Arbaaz beforehand not to carry any drugs to the party.”
Apart from Aryan, the names of Avin Sahu, Gopal Ji Anand, Sameer Sehgal, Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal have been dropped in the chargesheet. Anand, Sehgal, Arora and Singhal were employees of Caneplus Trading, the company that organised the cruise.
Wankhede transferred to Chennai
Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede, who headed the NCB in Mumbai when the Bureau arrested several people in a drugs case last year, including Aryan Khan was on Monday transferred to the DG Taxpayer Service Directorate in Chennai. The officer was posted as Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM) in Mumbai following his transfer from NCB earlier.
