Who is Sam D’Souza, currently being questioned by CBI in Cordelia case?

Who is Sam D’Souza?

Sam D’Souza is an accused in the CBI case in addition to Wankhede and three others. As per the affidavit filed by D’Souza before the court, the 34-year-old is an Andheri resident. In the affidavit, he said that in July 2021, he received a summons from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to appear before them in connection with a case registered by them.

He claimed that while he was involved in the case, he had to pay a bribe to NCB and give an undertaking that he would work as an informer for them. He claimed that he started providing information to NCB officials that led to drug busts by the central agency.

On November 2, 2021 in the aftermath of the Cordelia drug bust case in which Aryan Khan was arrested and eventually discharged, D’Souza’s name first cropped up in the statement of witness Prabhakar Sail.

Sail had claimed that on the night of the Cordelia raid, he had heard his employer Kiran Gosavi – who had accompanied NCB team for the raid on Cordelia – talk to Sam D’Souza on the phone. He had alleged that Gosavi told Sam to demand Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani to not take action against Aryan. He added that Gosavi had advised D’Souza to settle for Rs 18 crore as they would have to give Rs 8 crore to Sameer Wankhede. Wankhede had denied the allegations.

D’Souza later told reporters that prior to the Cordelia raid, he had received a call from a person he knew who asked him if he had any contacts with NCB. He said that he provided the contact of an NCB person and the person who called him gave a tip off to NCB about the party onboard Cordelia in which Aryan Khan was to be present. The person also claimed that those at the party would have narcotics.

D’Souza claimed that on the night of the raid, he received a call from Gosavi, who asked him to meet him. When D’Souza met Gosavi near the International Cruise Terminal at Ballard Pier where Cordelia was anchored, he was told that Aryan Khan was one of the detained persons and Khan wanted to talk to his manager Pooja Dadlani, D’Souza had claimed.

D’Souza further claimed that through intermediaries, he got in touch with Pooja Dadlani and he along with Gosavi and one Prabhakar Sail met her and her husband at Lower Parel. D’Souza claimed that he was later informed that Rs 50 lakh had been taken from Daldani to ensure Aryan was not named in the FIR.

He added that they later realised that Gosavi was not able to help Aryan as he had been named in the FIR. He told the media that he realised Gosavi was a “cheater”. Gosavi had saved the number of Sail as “Sameer Sir ” to give an impression that he was talking to Wankhede while brokering the deal.

“However, on truecaller the name Prabhakar Sail came up following which it was realised that he was just pretending to talk to Sameer Wankhede,” D’Souza had said. He further added that he had put pressure on Gosavi and ensured that the money was paid back. Dadlani has so far not responded to the allegations.