Sameer Wankhede, former NCB Mumbai zonal director, told the Bombay High Court he never demanded or accepted a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son Aryan Khan in the cruise drugs case. He seeks to quash the CBI FIR against him in bribery case
Sameer Wankhede on SRK, Aryan Khan
Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan spent almost a month in custody after he was arrested in October 2021 from an alleged rave party. Sameer Wankhede, the officer in charge of his arrest, recently told the Bombay High Court that he never demanded or accepted any bribe from Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son. The claim comes as Wankhede seeks to quash a CBI FIR accusing him of corruption and extortion in connection with the case.
Sameer Wankhede reveals he never took bribe from SRK
Former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede told the Bombay High Court on Monday that he never demanded or took a bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son Aryan Khan following the latter's arrest in a cruise drugs case.
Wankhede's counsel, Aabad Ponda, was arguing the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer's plea seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in May 2023 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of corruption and bribery. Ponda told a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam that Wankhede never demanded or took a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan.
As per the CBI FIR, Wankhede and the other accused in the case allegedly demanded Rs 25 crore from the actor to give a clean chit to his son in the drugs case. However, Ponda told the court on Monday that the CBI has no evidence to establish that Wankhede demanded or received any bribe.
About Aryan Khan’s drugs case
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had received a tip-off about alleged drugs on the cruise ship Cordelia. A search was conducted in accordance with the law, and a few persons, including Aryan Khan, were arrested, the counsel added.
Aryan Khan was arrested in the alleged drug bust case on the Cordelia cruise ship on October 2, 2021. Later, the NCB filed a charge sheet in the case against 14 accused but gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan in May 2022. The much-hyped case took a twist in 2021 when an “independent witness” claimed that an NCB official and other persons, including a witness, demanded Rs 25 crore to let off Aryan Khan.
The CBI had registered the case against Wankhede and others on charges of criminal conspiracy (Indian Penal Code section 120-B), threat of extortion (388 IPC), as well as bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint from the NCB. Based on the CBI's FIR, the Enforcement Directorate also registered a case against Wankhede, accusing him of money laundering.
Apart from this, Sameer Wankhede has alleged that the recently released OTT series The Ba***ds of Bollywood, directed by Aryan, has shown false, malicious, and defamatory content. He also alleged that the image of anti-drug enforcement agencies has been tarnished and shown negatively, thereby undermining public trust in law enforcement agencies. The series features a sequence where a drug enforcement agency officer, bearing a striking resemblance to Sameer, raids a party, similar to how the latter raided a cruise party in October 2021.
(With inputs from PTI)
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