Mumbai: After a visit by actor Shah Rukh Khan to the Special Enquiry Team (SET) of NCB on Nov 7, 2021, former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede's co-accused Sanville D'Souza who had allegedly been illegally detained by the SET, had been pressurized to give confessions against the officer. D'Souza's advocate told this to a special court during a hearing for his pre-arrest bail.
The SET was formed to probe allegations of dishonest conduct by some officials of NCB of Mumbai Zone to get undue advantage from the suspects in the luxury ship’s drug bust case. On a complaint filed by a member of the SET, CBI had registered its case against Wankhede and four others.
D'souza pressurised to confess
The CBI alleged that a ₹25 crore demand was made from Shah Rukh Khan and his family members to save Aryan Khan from being implicated in the drugs bust on the luxury ship Cordelia. D’Souza’s lawyer said in court that after the actor’s visit, D’souza was pressurised to state that he had asked for undue benefit on behalf of Wankhede.
The lawyer said D’Souza was detained between Nov 2 and Nov 8, 2021 and was “mentally and physically tortured” to get confession for him. It is due to this “traumatic” experience that D'Souza apprehends arrest if he appears before the CBI in response to its notice.
Wankhede was given protection from Bombay HC
D’Souza’s lawyer also pointed out that Wankhede has been given protection from the Bombay High Court, being the prime accused. The defence further said that a “clash of titans'' is going on and pointed to the status of Wankhede and Aryan Khan. The lawyer said there was no possibility of him influencing anyone connected with the case - either Shah Rukh Khan or Wankhede, not the two agencies of CBI and NCB. D’Souza’s plea for protection from arrest also pointed out that there is no formal complaint by either Shah Rukh Khan or Aryan Khan regarding the demand of bribe.
The CBI’s prosecutors PKB Gaikwad and Ashish Bilgaiyan submitted to court that several high profile people are involved in the case and hence custodial interrogation is required. It was also pointed out that D’Souza had not joined investigations despite two notices issued to him.
The court did not grant interim protection to D’Souza despite request by his lawyer and reserved his plea for order on June 14.
