According to a FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was extorted and threatened to pay ₹25 crore to free his son Aryan Khan from a drugs case.
KP Gosavi, an independent witness whose selfie with Aryan Khan went viral, allegedly tried to extort Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan on behalf of the former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, who is mentioned as accused number one in the CBI’s FIR.
Along with KP Gosavi and his associate D’Souza, the CBI has named Sameer Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer, V.V Singh, Superintendent with NCB, and Ashish Ranjan, the then-investigative officer in the Aryan Khan drugs case, as accused in the case.
According to the CBI, Wankhede and others allegedly wanted a ₹25 crore bribe in exchange for not framing Aryan Khan in the drug bust case.
“Sameer Wankhede, then Zonal Director of NCB and the accused’s immediate supervisory officer, directed to take KP Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as independent witnesses in the proceedings against the accused and directed V.V. Singh to let KP Gosavi handle the accused while taking him to NCB office, thereby allowing KP Gosavi and others a free hand in order to create such a visual impression of KP Gosavi having custody of the accused and escorting and dragging him towards NCB Mumbai office,” the CBI FIR read.
According to the FIR, the investigation by the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Special Enquiry Team (SET) revealed that the accused (including Aryan Khan) were brought to the NCB headquarters in the private vehicle of independent witness K P Gosavi.
“It appeared that the presence of the independent witness KP Gosavi around accused persons was purposefully created in such a way as to give the impression that KP Gosavi was an NCB personnel, despite the fact that NCB personnel were handling the accused persons’ custody.
KP Gosavi, an independent witness, was allowed to be present in the company of the accused and even allowed to visit the NCB office after the raid, which is against the norms for an independent witness,” the CBI FIR read.
KP Gosavi’s selfie with Aryan Khan went viral after he took it while the latter was being detained by NCB officials. The CBI FIR further claims that K P Gosavi was free to take photos and recorded Aryan Khan’s voice note.
“It was this position that enabled KP Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza, among others, to enter into a conspiracy to extort ₹25 crore from the family members of the alleged ‘accused,’ Aryan Khan, by threatening them with charges of drug possession. This sum was eventually settled for ₹18 crore. KP Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza took a token amount of ₹50 lakh as bribe money, but later returned a portion of this amount of ₹50 lakh bribe money,” the FIR added.
Internal NCB investigations found allegations of criminal misbehaviour and corrupt practices by Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan independently, which could not adequately justify their acquired assets based on their claimed income.
According to the FIR, the NCB’s Vigilance Branch saw that Sameer Wankhede had not adequately explained his international visits and had seemingly mis-declared the expenses on his foreign travels.
“He has also failed to properly declare the source of his foreign visits. It was also discovered that Sameer Wankhede engaged in the sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches with a private entity, Viral Rajan, without informing the department (present or parent),” the FIR continued.
Wankhede was charged after the CBI conducted a preliminary investigation based on a vigilance complaint. During the diligence investigation, it was discovered that Sameer Wankhede obtained assets through corruption. Following the filing of the FIR, the CBI raided 30 locations, including Sameer Wankhede’s home and office.
