Cruise case extortion claims: NCB team leaves Mumbai without recording witness's statement

Mumbai, Oct 30: A special team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), probing allegations of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is one of the accused, left for Delhi on Saturday without recording the statement of witness Prabhakar Sail, who had raised serious charges against Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and others, an official said.

The five-member team, headed by NCB Deputy Director General (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh, reached Mumbai on Wednesday to record statements after a departmental vigilance probe was ordered against Wankhede and others following Sail's claims that a pay off of Rs 25 crore was discussed in connection with the case of which Rs 8 crore was meant for Wankhede.

In the last three days, the NCB special team recorded statements of eight persons, including Wankhede, and collected some important documents and recordings related to the cruise drugs case, the official said.

However, the team failed to record the statements of Sail and K P Gosavi, another NCB witness in the cruise drugs case.

Sail, an independent witness in the drugs-on-cruise case, had claimed that he overheard Gosavi, arrested by the Pune Police in a cheating case on Thursday after remaining absconding, discussing the Rs 25 crore demand.

Sail used to work as a bodyguard for Gosavi, who claims to be a private detective.

Wankhede had dismissed all allegations against him as \"baseless\" and said he conducted a fair probe in the cruise drugs case.

Officials of the NCB team had said that Sail was a \"critical witness\" in the inquiry and without his statement, the team will not be able to reach any conclusion.

DDG Gyaneshwar Singh had appealed to Sail through media to come forward to record his statement and submit related evidence if any.

Singh had also written to Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale to convey to Sail to present himself before the NCB team on Saturday, but Sail did not turn up.

As both the witnesses- Gosavi and Sail- were not available, the NCB team left for Delhi, the official said.

It was not immediately clear whether the NCB team will return to Mumbai again.