Former NCB Wankhede denies bribery allegations in Bombay High Court in Aryan Khan case: Reports

Former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, on Monday reportedly told the Bombay High Court that he neither demanded nor accepted any bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan to spare his son Aryan Khan in the 2021 cruise drugs case.

As per reports, Wankhede’s counsel, Aabad Ponda, was arguing a petition seeking the quashing of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2023 on charges of corruption and bribery. He submitted before a bench headed by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar that there was no evidence to support allegations that his client had sought or received any illegal gratification.

According to the defence, the case stemmed from a tip-off received by the NCB regarding alleged drug use aboard the Cordelia cruise ship, following which a raid was conducted in accordance with the law and several individuals, including Aryan Khan, were arrested in October 2021.

The CBI’s FIR had alleged that Wankhede, along with other accused, including former NCB Superintendent of Police Vishwa Vijay Singh, intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan and two private individuals, demanded a bribe of ₹25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not implicating his son in the case. The amount was later allegedly reduced to ₹18 crore.

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3, 2021, a day after the raid, but was subsequently cleared of all charges by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB in May last year, which found no evidence linking him to a larger drug trafficking conspiracy.

An internal inquiry by the NCB had also pointed to procedural lapses in the handling of the case, including irregularities in documentation and the recording of statements.