Kamal Ghorui
The legal battle surrounding the high-profile cruise drugs case took a fresh turn on Monday, with former Sameer Wankhede telling the Bombay High Court that he neither demanded nor accepted any bribe from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son Aryan Khan.
‘No demand, no bribe’: Wankhede’s stand in court
As per PTI, appearing before a bench led by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam, Wankhede’s counsel Aabad Ponda asserted that the allegations made by the Central Bureau of Investigation are baseless.Ponda argued that there is “no evidence” to suggest that Wankhede demanded or received a Rs 25 crore bribe from Shah Rukh Khan during the 2021 cruise drugs case involving Aryan Khan. The plea pertains to Wankhede’s petition seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the CBI in May 2023 on charges of corruption and bribery.
What the CBI FIR alleges
According to the FIR filed on May 11, 2023, Wankhede, along with former NCB SP Vishwa Vijay Singh, intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan, and private individuals Kiran Gosavi and Sanville D’Souza, allegedly demanded Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not implicating Aryan Khan in the case.The alleged demand was later negotiated down to Rs 18 crore, as per the agency.
Defence cites ‘lawful raid’ and lack of proof
Wankhede’s counsel maintained that the raid on the Cordelia cruise ship was conducted based on a tip-off received by the Narcotics Control Bureau and followed due legal procedure. He added that several individuals, including Aryan Khan, were arrested in accordance with the law.
Aryan Khan’s arrest and later clean chit
Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3, 2021, a day after the controversial raid off the Mumbai coast. However, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB later gave him a clean chit on May 27, 2022, stating there was no evidence linking him to a larger drug trafficking conspiracy.An internal probe by the NCB also flagged procedural lapses, noting that Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant were added to the agency’s “information note” at the last moment. It further highlighted irregularities in documentation, including seizure records and statement recordings by Wankhede’s team. The matter continues to be heard by the court.
