Aryan Khan bribery case: Sameer Wankhede moves Bombay HC against CBI FIR, seeks no coercive action

Wankhede had earlier approached the Delhi High Court where the CBI made an oral assurance of no coercive action against him till Monday, May 22.

The Delhi High Court had on May 17 allowed Wankhede to approach the “appropriate forum” in his plea seeking a direction to the CBI to register a “cross-FIR” in the agency’s “corruption case” against him and others in relation to the 2021 Cordelia cruise ship “drug bust” case.

The CBI had raised a preliminary objection regarding jurisdiction before the Delhi High Court and said that even though it had registered the case in Delhi, everything has been forwarded to Mumbai and, therefore, Wankhede should have approached the appropriate forum in Mumbai.

The Delhi High Court order had thereafter noted, “Senior counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that without going into the merits of the case, he wishes to withdraw the petition with liberty to approach the appropriate forum”. “The withdrawal of the petition is allowed with liberty as aforesaid,” the HC order stated.

Wankhede in his plea in Delhi High Court had prayed for a direction to the CBI to “register a cross-FIR” over his counter version in the agency’s May 11 FIR lodged against him, Vishwa Vijay Singh, then Superintendent (NCB); Ashish Ranjan, then Intelligence Officer of Mumbai Zonal Unit (NCB); K P Gosavi; Sanvile D’Souza; and other unknown persons. As an interim direction, he prayed that no coercive steps be taken against him.

Aryan Khan, who was formally arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021 after the raid on the cruise ship a day before, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28 after 25 days in jail. But his name was not included in the list of the accused in the NCB chargesheet for lack of evidence.

A Special Enquiry Team (SET) of the NCB had red-flagged several lapses and irregularities in the operation on the cruise ship conducted under the “monitoring” of Wankhede.