Kiran Gosavi, an independent witness of the NCB in the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case, has said that he took a selfie with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan during the raid on the cruise ship to “show his friends”. The selfie and a video taken by Gosavi, who was apparently present during the raid, had gone viral on social media platforms and raised questions over the irregularity in the probe by the Narcotics Control Bureau.
Gosavi, who is himself accused of corruption and cheating and is currently lodged in a Pune jail, has told the NCB Special Investigation Team (SIT) in a statement that he had called a friend “who just wanted to hear Aryan’s voice”. According to Indian Express, Gosavi’s statement is part of the charge sheet submitted to a Mumbai court.
“I do not want to say anything on this because I have already been crucified because of his video everywhere. It was just a normal call from my friend who just wanted to hear Aryan Khan’s voice,” Gosavi said when asked by NCB SIT why he clicked a selfie with Aryan.
“I want to say that Aryan Khan was searched but no drug was found on him. However, drug chats were found on his phone. I thought Aryan Khan, being a celebrity, and no drug was found from him…he was made to sit separately to avoid crowd gathering around him. I took one selfie with him to show it to my friends,” he was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
On being asked about his presence at the raid location, he claimed that he had received inputs from his sources about the drugs and approached NCB officers who then asked him to reach the raid location.
What Happened So Far
On October 2, 2021, the NCB sleuths led by the then Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede had raided the Cordelia Cruise ship off Mumbai harbor and detained over half a dozen persons, including Aryan Khan and other celebrities.
Later, on October 3, the NCB arrested Aryan Khan though nothing was recovered from him, his friends Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, and another 17 persons including guests and drug peddlers were also nabbed. (A total of 20).
Four weeks later, on October 28, the Bombay High Court granted bail to Aryan Khan observing that there was no prima facie evidence to show that he and Merchant had conspired to commit offences under the NDPS Act.
On May 27 this year, the NCB gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan. NCB officials said Aryan and five others were not named in the agency’s chargesheet due to “lack of sufficient evidence”. The NCB SIT found “grave irregularities” and gaps in the probe, the officials said, adding the agency’s first team that arrested Aryan did not follow rules like mandatory medical test of accused, video recording of the raids and corroborate evidence for WhatsApp chats.
NCB director general S N Pradhan had told reporters that there were “shortcomings” in the investigation and WhatsApp chat of accused had no “physical corroborative evidence” as required to prove the charges in the court.
The NCB filed a nearly 6,000-page charge sheet before a Mumbai court against 14 accused in the case, but did not charge six, including Aryan Khan, due to lack of sufficient evidence. “We have filed the charge sheet on the basis of whatever was found by our special investigation team on the last date of filing the charge sheet,” Pradhan said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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