Maharashtra Water Resources Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jayant Patil on Sunday slammed the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after an independent witness in the Mumbai cruise drugs bust case claimed that an official of the central agency and some other persons demanded Rs 25 crore from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to release his son Aryan.
In a statement after the shocking allegations, Patil said that the reality is now starting to unfold before the people. He said the BJP leaders were at the forefront while arresting Aryan from the Cordelia cruise off Mumbai coast on October 3. "If such a huge sum of money is being demanded, then many people are likely to be involved in this," he added. Patil further slammed the BJP for "misusing central agencies and extorting money from the people".
For the unversed, Prabhakar Rohoji Sail, an independent witness, has claimed that an official of the NCB and some other persons demanded Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan to release his son Aryan.
Sail, who is reportedly the personal bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi--the alleged private investigator whose selfie with Aryan went viral--also said that NCB officials asked him to sign nine to ten blank papers.
Sail claimed he heard Gosavi telling a certain Sam D'Souza over phone about a demand of Rs 25 crore and to settle at Rs 18 crore as they "have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede (NCB Zonal Director)".
He further claimed that he had seen Pooja Dadlani (Shah Rukh Khan's manager) talking to Gosavi. He said that he was asked by Gosavi to go to a location to collect Rs 50 lakh cash. He said he collected two bags of cash and delivered to Gosavi. When counted, he said the bag had only Rs 38 lakh.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Minister and senior NCP leader Nawab Malik, who has repeatedly termed the cruise drugs bust case as "fake", said Sail's claims were "very serious" and demanded a probe into it by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
Talking to reporters in Beed, Malik reiterated his allegation that Wankhede was involved in "extortion and terrorising the Mumbai film industry", and said he will meet the chief minister and home minister on Monday in Mumbai seeking a SIT probe into Sail's claims.
However, an NCB official denied the allegations, terming them as "completely false and malicious".
(With PTI inputs)
