By threatening to frame Aryan Khan, witness sought Rs 25 cr from his family: CBI FIR

The SET probe also revealed that the independent witness who allegedly asked for the Rs 25 crore, K P Gosavi, was made to seem like an NCB official, and that the team led by Wankhede allegedly dropped the name of 17 persons as suspects during the Cordelia raid.

On Monday, a CBI spokesperson said: “We registered an FIR on May 11 against Sameer Wankhede, the then Zonal Director of NCB (Mumbai Zone Unit); Vishwa Vijay Singh, then Superintendent (NCB); Ashish Ranjan Prasad, then Intelligence Officer of Mumbai Zonal Unit (NCB); K P Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza (alleged witness) and other unknown persons. On May 12, CBI conducted searches at 29 locations across Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati, which led to recovery of incriminating material.”

A 2008-batch IRS officer, Wankhede, who headed the NCB Mumbai zone, had led a team of officers to raid the ship off the Mumbai coast on the night of October 2, 2021. The NCB had claimed to have seized 13 gm of cocaine, 5 gm of mephedrone, 21 gm of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA and Rs 1.33 lakh cash in the raid, and arrested 17 people, including Aryan.

The CBI had lodged an FIR after they received a complaint from one Kapil, superintendent in the vigilance branch of NCB. “An SET was formed to conduct an enquiry into allegations of improper/dishonest performance of duty by certain officials of NCB of Mumbai Zone in order to obtain undue advantage from the suspects in the case, which was registered and investigated under the supervision of Wankhede,” the CBI FIR states.

According to the FIR, the NCB claimed it received secret information on October 2, 2021 related to consumption/possession of narcotics on the cruise ship. “A team was formed by Wankhede and Superintendent Singh to carry out the search and seizure proceedings. Prasad was taken as the investigation officer and two persons, Kiran Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail, were taken as independent witnesses,” the FIR states.

The SET revealed that on October 2, 2021, names of certain suspects were dropped from the first information I-note and names of others were included through modification to suit the proceedings. “The initial I-Note had 27 names, but the modified I-Note has only 10 names. A number of passengers were examined at the departure gate of MPT (Mumbai Port Trust) by IO Prasad. During this, one of the suspects accepted that he is having charas hidden inside his shoes. Even the charas in the zip lock pouch was taken out from his shoes voluntarily and was handed over to IO Prasad,” the FIR states.

“The search of many other persons whose names were available with the NCB officials – as suspected persons – was done, but the same was not documented. A few persons who were suspects were also allowed to leave without any documentation. [A suspect] who had the alleged role in supply of charas… was also allowed to walk free by the NCB even though he had accepted that he got money… to buy charas and there were incriminating chats showing that he himself was consuming drugs,” the complainant alleged.

According to the CBI, the enquiry conducted by SET has also revealed that the accused were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle of independent witness Gosavi. “It appeared that his presence around the accused persons was created intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that he was an NCB personnel, even though there were NCB personnel to handle the custody of the accused persons. Gosavi was even allowed to come to the NCB office after the raid, which is against the norms for an independent witness. He also clicked selfies and recorded the voice note of an accused,” the FIR states.

“The SET has found that it was this position that allowed Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza amongst others to enter into the conspiracy to extort Rs 25 crore from the family members of the Aryan Khan by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of narcotics substances. This amount was finally settled for Rs 18 crore and a token amount of Rs 50 lakh as bribe money was also taken by Gosavi and Sanvile. But later a part of this amount of Rs 50 lakh bribe money was returned back by them,” the FIR states.

The SET has also found that Wankhede had directed to take Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as independent witnesses, and directed Singh to let Gosavi handle the accused.

“Enquiries have also been done in allegations of criminal misconduct and corrupt practices of Wankhede and Prasad independently, which could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income. It has also come to the notice of Vigilance Branch of NCB that Wankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and had apparently mis-declared the expenditure on his foreign travels. It was also found that Wankhede has indulged in sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches with a private entity without intimating the department,” the FIR stated.

Aryan was released on bail by the Bombay High Court 26 days after the raid. Eventually, another NCB team, which investigated the matter, dropped his name from the chargesheet, citing insufficient evidence. Wankhede was later accused of “shoddy investigation”.