Stepping up its attack on the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Nationalist Congress Party on Friday alleged that the anti-drug agency let off two persons after a raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast recently, with one of them being the brother-in-law of a 'high-profile' BJP leader.
D'Souza's anticipatory bail plea was rejected by special CBI judge S M Menjonge.
Former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau Sameer Wankhede on Thursday filed an affidavit in a court in Maharashtra's Washim district, stating their family belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and has not embraced any other religion.
NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede should be suspended following the court's findings, he said.
The anti-drug agency's SIT on Sunday asked Aryan Khan to appear before it the same day, the NCB official said.
Maharashtra NCP minister Nawab Malik on Monday claimed that Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal director Sameer Wankhede used forged documents including his birth certificate. Wankhede, an IRS officer of the 2008 batch, slammed the minister, saying his action was defamatory in nature and an invasion of his family's privacy.
The anti-drugs agency had issued the notice to Johar over a viral video allegedly showing drugs being consumed at a party hosted at his residence, the official said.
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.
The seizure, as per officials, is estimated to be worth over Rs 10 crore in the international market (about Rs 5K-7K per blot) and all the six who have been taken into custody, beginning late last month, are students and youngsters who wanted to make 'easy money' by remaining anonymous within the deep layers of secret internet-based apps and messenger service like WICKR.
Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik on Saturday claimed that some unidentified persons tried to conduct a recce of his residence in Mumbai and also tried to gather information about himself and his family members.
An official from the NCB said Wankhede was not even in service when the alleged case took place.
The Bombay high court on Monday quashed and set aside the order of a single bench of the HC that had refused to restrain Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik from making public statements against the Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family.
Ananya's father Chunky Panday accompanied her to the NCB office located at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, where they reached around 4 pm.
With this, the anti-drugs agency has so far arrested 17 people in the case, including Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, and some "high-profile organisers" belonging to a Delhi-based event management company.
Officials of the NCB, which filed its chargesheet in a Mumbai court, said Aryan Khan and five others had not been named due to 'lack of sufficient evidence'.
The NCB searched Singh's house and office in the morning as part of its probe into alleged drug use in the Hindi film industry.
Pithani was Rajput's friend and was also staying with the late actor at his Bandra residence in suburban Mumbai, he said.
Malik also alleged that Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty was implicated in a 'fake case' by the NCB.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday sought to know why the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was saving Kashif Khan, one of the organisers of the cruise party where the NCB conducted a raid last month, and what was his relationship with the anti-drugs agency officer Sameer Wankhede.
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.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Saturday asked why the NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede used a "family friend" as an independent witness in three investigations.
The NCB personnel late Saturday night carried out multiple raids in Mumbai's suburbs, including Goregaon. They also arrested one more person, identified as Shivraj Ramdas, from Santacruz area on Friday night in connection with the case of drugs seizure, the official said.
The Narcotics Control Bureau on Tuesday claimed to have busted the "biggest" darknet-based LSD cartel operating in India with the seizure of more than 13,000 blots and Rs 26 lakh in cash and the arrest of three persons.
Fadnavis said, "Nawab Malik and his family members were part of a company which purchased land in Kurla (area of Mumbai) at a very low rate by making some fictitious documents. There are four such land purchase deals where I can firmly say that Malik has entered into land deals with the underworld."
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.
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.
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.
A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday refused bail to former Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik in an alleged money laundering case linked to a land deal in which fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides were involved.
The NCB has arrested a Goa-based man who allegedly had links with the accused in a drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, an NCB official said on Monday.
The complainant alleged that Malik made "false and derogatory" remarks against him and his family members.
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.
Dnyandev Wankhede, Sameer's father, has sought damages of Rs 1.25 crore from Malik and an order restraining him from making further false or incorrect statements against the Wankhede family.
Wankhede filed a petition and sought an urgent hearing, saying he feared arrest by police over allegations of extortion against him in the case related to alleged drug bust on a cruise ship involving actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan khan.
Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Thursday accused NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede and his family of obtaining two separate certificates of his mother following her death in 2015, each mentioning her as Muslim and Hindu.
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.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday told the Bombay high court that the defamation suit filed against him by Dhyandev Wankhede, father of Narcotics Control Bureau zonal director Sameer Wankhede, was only an attempt to cover-up the 'illegalities' committed by the IRS officer and claimed none of his statements against them was false.
NCP leader Nawab Malik had levelled a string of allegations against the NCB official, including illegal phone tapping.
The assurance came after the high court asked the minister whether he has lodged a complaint with the caste scrutiny committee regarding his allegations against Sameer Wankhede's caste credentials, and said if he has not done so what was his intention behind the 'media publicity', which it said does not befit a minister.
Wankhede is facing the vigilance probe by NCB after an independent witness in the drugs-on-cruise case, in which Aryan Khan is one of the accused, claimed of overhearing a discussion of a Rs 25 crore pay-off, including Rs 8 crore for Sameer Wankhede.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances