‘Please send my son home’: Sameer Wankhede cites SRK messages, says ‘nowhere suggests’ demand made to favour Aryan

“I beg you man, please don’t let him be in that jail. These holidays will come and he will break as a human being. His spirit will be destroyed because of some vested people. You promised you will reform my child and not put him in a place where he may come out completely battered and broken. And it’s no fault of his. …But please send my son home. You also know in your heart it’s been a bit too harsh for him by now. Please please I beg you as a father,” said one of the messages purportedly sent by Shah Rukh.

Another purported message read, “If in any way without losing your integrity as an officer of law, you can help with whatever manner possible please. I will always be indebted…”

Wankhede’s plea stated, “Allegations pertaining to the arrest of Aryan Khan being only an attempt for demanding money in exchange of his release are blatantly false and can be clearly seen from the messages sent by Mr Shahrukh Khan himself during the time Aryan was in the custody of NCB. Mr Shahrukh Khan has, vide his messages, clearly portrayed that he has no grievances against the Petitioner and has only requested to be kind to his son.”

He claimed that Shah Rukh praised his integrity and also expressed his “anguish” over “political involvement in the matter”.

As per the chats attached in the petition, Wankhede said he wanted to look towards Aryan with a reformatory approach, but “unfortunately” his attempt to do so “was being maligned by some dirty persons with malafide and vested interests”.

To this, the actor allegedly responded, “…But my son is not part of that please. You also know that. You know his part is minuscule in it. All he needs is reformation and for that he has had his quota and I will also follow suit with what we talked in terms of making him a better person. Please man I beg you there is nothing from my side that is participant in the vested interests. I went out of my way and without even knowing them called and begged them not to involve my child in their politics. The people here and also the person in the North. I spoke as a father to them and even chided them that they are harming my kid in their selfish interests.”

Wankhede submitted in court, “The said conversation nowhere suggests that either in the message of Shahrukh Khan or in the reply of the petitioner that there was either a demand made or caused to be made for extending a favour or advantage to Aryan Khan.”

Wankhede said it was always Shah Rukh who initiated the conversation and he only responded.

“Needless to say, Mr. Khan himself in all fairness was being persuasive in his conversation with the petitioner to take care of his son as well as to join him and assist him in ensuring reformation of his son to ensure a better life and future of his son. A suggestion of reformation was suggestive of Aryan Khan having engaged in some act of omission or commission under the NDPS Act of which Shahrukh Khan was aware which led him to persuade the petitioner towards reformation of his son,” the plea claimed.

“… If at all there was any semblance of truth in the wild and false allegations of demands being made, then the message of Khan would have made, if not a direct, at least an indirect reference to such a demand being made or either having been accepted or turned down. However, the same is clearly missing,” the plea stated.

Wankhede claimed that if there was any truth in these allegations of demands, his conversation with Khan would have been on “different lines” and “not in the form of a father persuading and pleading before a law enforcement officer to help his son in reformation keeping in mind his future”.

“These conversations in fact belie the allegations of NCB Headquarters, New Delhi…,” the plea stated.

Aryan, 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.