The CBI has booked former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and three others on charges of seeking bribe of ₹25 crore for allegedly not framing bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in a drug case.
Wankhade, an IRS officer who was posted at Chennai, and other accused persons, had allegedly collected ₹50 lakh as token money out of the total bribe sought from the family members of Aryan Khan to bail him out of a case of drug seizure aboard a private cruise ship in 2021.
Wankhade had hit the headlines for arresting Aryan Khan. Later, he was removed from the case and the NCB re-investigated the case and filed a chargesheet letting out 6 of the 14 accused, included Aryan, sue to lack of evidence.
The CBI, in a release, said that searches were conducted on Friday at 29 locations across Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati which led to the recovery of incriminating documents, articles, cash, among others.
Other than the IRS officer, the CBI’s FIR is also registered against Vishwa Vijay Singh, then Superintendent of NCB, Ashish Ranjan, then Intelligence Officer of Mumbai Zonal Unit of NCB, and two private persons - KP Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza, the agency stated.
The CBI charged that the four accused entered into a criminal conspiracy and “allegedly obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused” in the drug seizure case.
“It has also been alleged that the said persons (NCB officials and private persons) entered into conspiracy in order to extort an amount of ₹25 crore (approx.) from the family members” of the alleged accused by “threatening” to frame them of “offences of possession of narcotics substances,” the CBI said. It was done as per the alleged directions of then Zonal Director Wankhade. “A token amount of ̥₹50 lakh as bribe was allegedly obtained in furtherance of this conspiracy by the said persons,” the CBI charged.