Mumbai cruise drug bust case: Shah Rukh Khan's driver summoned by NCB

Mumbai, Oct 09: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's driver was summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau or NCB on Saturday over the anti-drug raid on a cruise ship last week.

On 2 October, the NCB raided the Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship and recovered drugs from the passengers.

So far, 18 persons have been arrested in the case, including Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.

They were produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R M Nerlikar at the end of their earlier remand. The court sent them in judicial custody even as the probe agency sought extension of remand till October 11.

Meanwhile, the NCB said all the allegations levelled against the agency in connection with the cruise ship raid and alleged recovery of drugs, in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan''s son Aryan Khan was arrested, are "baseless, motivated afterthoughts and prejudicial".

NCB Director, Mumbai Zone, Sameer Wankhede said the anti-drugs agency works professionally. "We do not see any political party and religion. We do our job professionally," he added.

The incident took a political turn when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday claimed that the raid was "fake" and that "outsiders" were involved in it.

On Saturday, Malik alleged that the NCB had initially detained 11 persons from the Goa-bound cruise ship, but let off three of them, including the brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya, a couple of hours later.

A senior NCB official told media persons on Saturday that the two men, whom Malik had claimed as "outsiders" involved in the raid, were actually among the nine independent witnesses involved in the operation. He said the duo was not known to the NCB before October 2, when the raid was conducted.