Kiran Gosavi clicked selfie to show friends, pal called him to hear Aryan Khan’s voice: NCB

Aryan and five others were dropped as accused in the chargesheet filed by the SIT last week. Gosavi’s statement is part of the chargesheet submitted to the court.

After the NCB checked the guests arriving at the international cruise terminal in Mumbai to board the ship on October 2, last year, some, including Aryan, were detained and brought to the agency’s office.

While he was in detention, a selfie of Aryan with Gosavi had gone viral. Two videos, including one where Gosavi is seen holding a phone and Aryan speaking into it, was also circulated hours after his detention.

In his statement to the SIT, Gosavi said, “I do not want to say anything on this because I have already been crucified because of his video everywhere. It was just a normal call from my friend who just wanted to hear Aryan Khan’s voice.”

The SIT recorded his statement last month at Yerwada Central jail in Pune, where he was lodged in connection with cases filed against him by the state police. Gosavi was asked 36 questions, including why he had taken a selfie with Aryan.

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“I want to say that Aryan Khan was searched but no drug was found on him. However, drug chats were found in his phone. I thought Aryan Khan, being a celebrity, and no drug was found from him… he was made to sit separately to avoid crowd gathering around him. I took one selfie with him to show it to my friends,” Gosavi told the SIT.

Hours after the detention of Aryan and others, the selfie began doing the rounds on social media. Initially, questions were raised on whether the person in the photograph was an NCB officer. The central agency went on to deny this, saying that Gosavi was an independent “panch” witness, called to witness the search and seizure at the ship.

Questions were first raised about Gosavi by NCP Minister Nawab Malik, who said that Gosavi had a criminal record, and asked how he was allowed access to the persons detained at the NCB office.

Gosavi told the SIT that he received information about guests carrying drugs to the ship through a source whose identity he cannot reveal due to security reasons.

Apart from Gosavi, Malik had also said that a BJP functionary, Manish Bhanushali, was part of the NCB raid.

Gosavi, when asked about Bhanushali, had told the SIT that he knew him through common friends. He also said that they had met at the Mundra port in Ahmedabad (where he had gone for “business”) on September 29, 2021 – two days before the cruise ship raid. They then travelled together to Mumbai early morning on the day of the raid. Gosavi claimed that he had received information about the drugs and approached NCB officers who then asked him to accompany them to the cruise terminal.

Gosavi was also asked about the allegations that he planned to extort money from Shah Rukh Khan’s manager. Gosavi’s bodyguard, Prabhakar Sail, who made the claims, was also referred to as a panch witness by the NCB during the raid.

Gosavi denied allegations of Sail, who died last month. “I guess he (Sail) has been influenced by some political leaders…,” Gosavi told the SIT. He also denied receiving any financial benefit or knowing any of the accused or NCB officers before the raid.

The SIT had also recorded Aryan’s statement again in November after taking over the probe. Aryan, in his statement, said that after charas was found on his friend Arbaaz Merchant before they could board the ship, an officer introduced himself as Sameer Wankhede, then NCB zonal director, to him.

“(He said) that ‘we have found charas from your friend Arbaaz’ and that it was for my use on the ship. However, this was not true. I had no idea that Arbaaz was carrying charas,” Aryan said in his statement. The statement also quoted Aryan saying that he has consumed marijuana in the US but “never consumed any drug, including marijuana, in India”.