Sail's lawyer said that his family members do not suspect any foul play.
The details of FIR made public on Monday show that independent witness K P Gosavi and one Prabhakar Sail, now deceased, were included by the NCB in the Cordelia cruise ship drug raid on October 2, 2021 on the directions of Wankhede.
Prabhakar Sail, who claims to be the bodyguard of NCB witness KP Gosavi, last month alleged in an affidavit that he had heard Gosavi discussing a Rs 25 crore pay-off deal after Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB.
Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise drugs seizure case, on Sunday claimed that a Narcotics Control Bureau officer and some other persons demanded Rs 25 crore from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to release his son Aryan Khan in the case.
A special team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), probing allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is one of the accused, left for Delhi on Saturday without recording the statement of witness Prabhakar Sail, who had raised serious charges against Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and others, an official said.
The witness has been provided protection by the Mumbai police in the wake of revelations he made in his application.
Wankhede, who has been booked along with four others in the case, is likely appear before the CBI team in Mumbai, they said.
Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil on Monday said police protection has been given to Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the drugs-on-cruise case who has claimed Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and other persons to let off Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the case.
They said Wankhede did not appear for questioning on Thursday and the Central Bureau of Investigation will decide on the future course of action.
The officer told media persons outside the Indira Gandhi International Airport that he has not been summoned by the agency but has some work here.
'The decision to arrest Aryan Khan was a consensual decision, not a one-man command.'
The anti-drugs agency in its affidavit said attempts are being made to tamper with the ongoing investigation with a malafide intention to derail the probe into the case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday conducted searches at the premises of former Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede after filing an FIR against him and four others for allegedly seeking Rs 25 crore bribe for not framing Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case, officials said.
"In the wee hours of October 3, I came to know that the celebrity who was caught on the ship was Aryan Khan. That time Aryan told Gosavi that he wanted to talk to his manager Pooja Dadlani. Gosavi conveyed Aryan's message. That time Gosavi told me that Aryan Khan was clean and no drugs were found in his possession. He said we can help him (Aryan Khan)," D'Souza claimed.
Sunil Patil, whom former Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing chief Mohit Bharatiya has accused of being the mastermind of the cruise drugs episode, appeared before the Mumbai Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday evening to record his statement, an official said.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected an application seeking pre-arrest bail filed by Samville D'Souza, whose name had cropped up in connection with allegations of pay-off in the case of drug seizure in which Aryan Khan, actor Shah Rukh Khan's son, was arrested.
The special enquiry team of the Narcotics Control Bureau, which is probing allegations of extortion attempt in the drugs case involving actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan, has recorded statements of over a dozen persons so far, a senior official said on Friday.
The officer entered the NCB office in the R K Puram area through a back entry gate and is understood to have met his senior officers.
The SET's findings have now been taken on record by the Central Bureau of Investigation which recently raided the 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer after it filed an FIR against him for corruption and alleged violation of rules in the raids that took place at the Cordelia cruise berthed at the Mumbai coast on October 2, 2021.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Bharatiya also alleged that Deshmukh had met a drug peddler and Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's aide Chinku Pathan at the Sahyadri state guest house in Mumbai when a strict lockdown was in force.
Gosavi's photos and videos with actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan went viral on social media after the NCB's raid.
The NCB and Wankhede had earlier in the day filed two separate affidavits before the special court against the allegations of extortion attempt levelled against them.
The PIL has also sought a direction to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to frame the national witness protection scheme as recommended in various reports of the Law Commission.
Wankhede presented his version and official documents related to the raid, which took place in October last year at the international cruise terminal in Mumbai, before NCB deputy director general for the northern region Gyaneshwar Singh.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf unravels the chronology of controversy in the Aryan Khan drug bust case.
The NCB, through a special public prosecutor, had argued that there were "compelling reasons" to seek the extension.
The clean chit to Aryan Khan and five others by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Friday has once again brought the central agency's former zonal director Sameer Wankhede under the spotlight.
On legal front, Wankhede, who the NCB asserted has an impeccable service record, failed to get any relief related to an affidavit on the sensational extortion claims made by the independent witness, Prabhakar Sail, with a special court saying it cannot pass a blanket order barring courts from taking cognisance of the document.
The four-five member team, led by NCB's Deputy Director General (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh, is also likely to visit a few other places and will also record the statement of Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the case.
The probe agency, in its plea, has claimed that the chemical examination reports of all the 17 samples were received on March 12, which proved that all the contraband recovered during the raid are narcotics/psychotropic drugs within the ambit of the NDPS Act.
The Narcotics Control Bureau's deputy director general, northern region, Gyaneshwar Singh, who is heading the departmental vigilance probe into allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case, arrived at the agency's office in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The wife of under-fire NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Tuesday came out in strong support of her husband and said they were getting threat calls, facing vicious trolling online and living in fear as she rejected allegations levelled against him by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.
The agency had called him a hostile witness after he made the allegations.
Kiran Gosavi, an 'independent witness' of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs-on-cruise case who is absconding, on Monday refuted the extortion claims made by his aide and another witness in the case, Prabhakar Sail, and said he will surrender shortly before the Lucknow police.
The minister, however, henceforth, must make statements against Wankhede or his family only after "reasonable verification of facts," the HC said.
The Narcotics Control Bureau's special investigation team has found "grave irregularities" and gaps in the probe of the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case, with officials saying its first team that arrested Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan did not follow rules like mandatory medical test of accused, video recording of the raids and corroborate evidence for WhatsApp chats.
"There is no evidence of consumption, no recovery of drugs and absolutely no evidence to show his participation in this so-called conspiracy and abetment as alleged by the NCB," Rohatgi said while arguing for Aryan Khan's bail.
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