Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alleged on Wednesday that the NCB raid on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai on October 2 was false and that no narcotics were found during it.
The party also questioned the presence of two people with the NCB team during the raid and alleged that one of them was a member of the BJP.
The BJP said in its reaction that if there had been no evidence, the court would have granted bail to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan in the case. The Narcotics Control Bureau also called the allegations baseless. BCN has so far arrested 17 people, including Aryan Khan, after allegedly seizing drugs from the vessel bound for Goa on Saturday.
The drama (the raid) was wrong. They did not find any drugs on the cruise ship, said NCP spokesman and Maharashtra Minister of Minority Affairs Nawab Malik.
He also posted some videos, allegedly from the cruise ship raid. A man named ‘Gosavi’ who is seen escorting Aryan Khan in one of the videos was not an NCB official, and his social media profile indicates he is a Kuala Lumpur-based private investigator, according to the chief of the NCP.
In addition, two men escort Arbaaz Merchant, also arrested in the case, in another video, and one of them is a member of the BJP, according to Malik.
If these two men are not NCB officials, then why were they escorting two prominent figures (Khan and Merchant), “he asked.
The man seen with Merchant was in Gujarat on September 21-22 and could be linked to the seizure of around 3,000 kilograms of heroin at Mundra port, Malik said, asking the BJP to clarify the credentials of that person.
“The entire NCB is being used by the BJP to slander the government of Maharashtra and Bollywood,” he said, alleging that the drug agency was targeting those who are against the Saffron Party.
Notably, Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the BCN on January 13, 2021, in an alleged drug case. He was released on bail in September.
In a statement, NCB Deputy Inspector General Gyaneshwar Singh said: “some allegations” against the agency were unfounded and may have been made “in retaliation for previous legal actions” carried out by it.
Its procedure “has been and will continue to be professionally and legally transparent and impartial,” the statement said.
“People named Prabhakar Sail, Kiran Gosavi, Manish Bhanushali, Aubrey Gomez, Adil Usmani, V Waigankar, Aparna Rane, Prakash Bahadur, Shoib Faiz, and Muzammil Ibrahim have been associated with the NCB as independent witnesses (panchas),” said the agency.
Reacting to Malik’s allegations, local BJP MP Atul Bhatkhalkar said during the lockdown that the state government led by Uddhav Thackeray was the first to open liquor stores, he also decided to lift the ban in Chandrapur, and now Nawab Malik has accused the NCB of being a drug lord.
Aryan Khan was represented by a senior criminal lawyer when he appeared in court, Bhatkhalkar said.
“The reason the court awarded custody of Aryan Khan to NCB even after he (this lawyer) argued for the defense is because of the strong evidence against him (Khan). Had no evidence he was reportedly released on immediate bail, the BJP chief said.
Malik’s allegations call the credibility of the tribunal into question, he added.
The BJP chief also asked if Malik was targeting the NCB at his son-in-law’s request.
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