It has been a month since the Aryan Khan Drugs Case which has been the talk of the town. It all started on 2nd October, Saturday night when the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a rave party on the Cordelia Cruise ship on its way to Goa at mid-sea. 8 people were detained by the NCB for inquiry regarding the matter the next day.
Among the accused were Aryan Khan, Arbaz Seth Merchant, and Munmun Dhamecha who were produced before Mumbai’s Esplanade Court which was sent remanded to NCB custody till October 4.
As per the NCB, they had been booked under Section 8C, 20B, 27, and 35 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act).
Although allegedly no drugs had been confiscated from Aryan Khan himself, his mere presence in the party created severe consequences. His WhatsApp chats were investigated by the agency which led to the name of Ananya Pandey being dragged into the matter, eventually leading to extensive trouble and trolling.
Amidst this ruckus, a new angle emerged as NCB’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede who is in charge of the case was himself dragged into controversies.
Extortion Rumors
On 23rd October in an affidavit, one of the agency’s own witnesses, Prabhakar Sail claimed that investigators made him sign on 10 sheets of blank paper at their office on the day of the raid. Since then at least 4 police stations have received complaints against him and other NCB officials.
As per Sail, his employer, Kiran Gosavi was overheard speaking on the phone about extorting ₹25 crores to settle the case and release Aryan Khan, which could be negotiated to ₹18 crores, with an alleged share of ₹8 crores for Wankhede.
Gosavi met Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, Pooja Dadlani, and an alleged exchange of money took place between them on 3rd October, an affidavit further stated.
Also Read: Aryan Khan Gets Bail, But Is He Truly Free?
Biased Investigation
The charges against Wankhede further raise questions on NCB’s past cases. A Nationalist Congress Party leader had pointed out that none of the high-profile cases involving Bollywood celebrities have come to a logical conclusion. Either the investigations are pending or the trials have not begun yet.
In 2020 the NCB under Wankhade was also in charge of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and arrested his then-girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty for allegedly supplying drugs to him based solely on her WhatsApp chats!
Caste Ambiguity
Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik has alleged that Sameer Wankhede, benefitted from the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) despite being Muslim and ineligible for the quota.
As per the Department of Personal Training, Wankhede Ranked 561st in the Civil Services Examination 2007. He was selected as a candidate from the SC category and became an officer of the 2008 batch of the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Indirect Taxes).
Malik has claimed that Sameer was raised as a Muslim, and has released the alleged nikahnama dated December 7, 2006, which shows his name as Sameer Dawood Wankhede.
As a result, Wankhede was accused of using forged documents to get selected in the CSE under the SC quota. Wankhede could lose his job if the allegations are proven.
How Did The Accusations Affect Aryan Khan’s Case?
The allegations on Wankhede somewhat shifted the attention of the public from Aryan Khan. This to an extent controlled the level of trolling and also made them doubt the genuineness of the entire scenario.
The extortion charges and the treatment of the previous cases along with the forgery allegations not only doubt the validity of his custody but also questions Wankhede’s credibility as an NCB official.
Although the accusations did not directly affect the bail hearing for Aryan Khan as his legal team clarified that they are not related to the accuser in any way neither they believe in the accusations nor want to take any stand.
Such a turn of events earned the Aryan Khan case sympathy in the public eye and gave it a political angle. The intervention of significant personalities and the statements made by them also shifted the focus from busting drug nexus to validating Wankhede’s bureaucracy.
This, even though not the primary factor, was likely one of the factors that swayed the star kid’s bail by the Bombay High Court on Thursday 28th October.
Let us know your views in the comments below.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Indian Express
Find the Blogger: @ParomaDey
This post is tagged under: Aryan Khan, Aryan Khan drugs arrest, narcotics control bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, nationalist congress party, Nawab Malik, Sameer Wankhede Allegations, Cordia Ship Cruise, Sameer Dawood Wankhede, Extortion. NCB, NCB Investigations
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