Senior executive of Fashion TV, Kashiff Khan on Friday denied the allegations made by Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Mallik and said he was not the organiser of the party on the Goa bound cruise, from where Aryan Khan was arrested.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Kashiff Khan also denied having any association with Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
"I do not even know the NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede. I have never spoken to him in my life. I really do not understand that why Minister Nawab Malik has made such allegations against me. He will be the only person to explain it," said Khan.
"We have been told that the cruise is legal and permission has been given to sail. Yes, I was on the cruise as a customer and as a client and apart from this, I do not have anything related to the cruise," Khan added.
Khan claimed the organisers of the cruise party hailed from Delhi, and he has "nothing" to do with them.
"I am not an organiser of this cruise or the party. The allegations are baseless. The organisers are from Delhi and they have already been detained and questioned. I have nothing to do with them," he said.
Speaking about the night when the cruise was raided by the NCB team, Khan said, "I didn't even realise that the cruise was raided I had been told that some people tried to board the cruise illegally and later they were offloaded. I always thought that the cruise is legal and have cleared all the permissions so we boarded the cruise." Khan further added, "I didn't know anything about the drugs that had been carried in the cruise." Earlier in the day, Nawab Malik in a press conference claimed Kashiff Khan organised the party on the cruise and asked why the action was not initiated against Kashiff Khan.
Malik further alleged Khan was let off by NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede because he is "probably a friend of Wankhede".
"Almost a month ago, a person (Kiran Gosavi) who was involved in arresting an innocent youth is now behind the bars. Another person (Sameer Wankhede) who was leading the raid is now knocking doors of the court, requesting to transfer the case investigated by the Mumbai Police to CBI or NIA," said the Maharashtra minister.
Meanwhile, Aryan Khan is expected to be out of jail today as he got bail from Bombay High Court on Thursday in the drug-on-cruise case, as per his advocate Satish Maneshinde.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to Aryan Khan and other accused in the case including Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha after hearing of their bail pleas.
An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship, which was on its way to Goa at mid-sea on October 2. A total of 20 people, including Aryan Khan, have been arrested so far in the case.
