India / SRK's manager Pooja Dadlani appears to have influenced a witness: NCB

Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in an affidavit filed before the Bombay high court, has said that Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani apparently “influenced” Prabhakar Sail, a panch witness in the agency’s drug bust case over which the actor’s son Aryan Khan was arrested earlier this month.

“Respondents submit that attempts are being made to tamper with the ongoing investigation, with mala fide attempt to derail the same,” say the affidavit filed as a response to Aryan Khan’s bail application.

“This is evident from the purported affidavit dated October 23, 2021 by one Prabhakar Sail. Such a document has not being filed in any proceeding before any court, despite the fact that the matter is sub judice before the Hon’ble Sessions Court and before this Hon’ble Court,” the affidavit says. “Curiously, the same has been clandestinely distribute and widely publicised in the media. Significantly, such purported affidavit clearly names one Pooja Dadlani, manager connected to this applicant (Aryan Khan).”

“It so appears that the said lady appears to have influenced such panch witness when the investigation is ongoing. Such interference at the stage of investigation is mala fide to ensure that the same is derailed and the quest for truth is obstructed,” says the affidavit filed by VV Singh, investigation officer of the drug bust case.

“Thus, the respondent respectfully states that as there are clear instances of tampering, influencing witnesses in the midst of an ongoing investigation, the bail application be rejected on such ground alone,” the affidavit says.

Prabhakar Sail, who claimed to have worked as a bodyguard of KP Gosavi, who was seen with drug enforcers in a raid on a cruise ship earlier this month, said in the affidavit that he was forced to sign on blank papers on that night.

Gosavi, one of the witnesses in the case, is on the run and police have issued a lookout notice for him.

Sail allegedly heard Gosavi and another person discussing monetary settlement for an amount of ₹25 crore, out of which ₹8 crore was supposed to be paid to a senior NCB official.

Sail said in the affidavit that he overheard Gosavi telling a person called Sam D’Souza over the phone after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office after the October 3 raid about a demand of ₹25 crore and to settle at ₹18 crore as they “have to give ₹8 crore to Sameer Wankhede”, who is the Mumbai zonal director of NCB.

He has since been provided protection by Mumbai police.

Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan moved the Bombay high court for bail after the special NDPS court on October 20 rejected his bail application.

Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, who too were arrested in the drug bust case, have also moved the high court and all the bail applications are listed for hearing before a single judge bench of justice Nitin Sambre.

Former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi has reached Mumbai along with a team from Karanjwala & Co to argue Aryan Khan’s bail plea before the high court.

Acting on a specific tip-off, a team of the NCB officials, headed by the agency’s zonal director Sameer Wankhede, on October 2 searched certain passengers slated to take the Cordellia cruise to Goa from the International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai.

During the search, the agency claimed to have seized multiple types of drugs such as 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of “charas”, and 22 MDMA pills, along with ₹1.33 lakh in cash.

The NCB team intercepted 14 individuals, and after hours of interrogation, placed 23-year-old Aryan Khan, Arbaaz, 26, and Dhamecha, 28, under arrest in the afternoon of October 3.

The trio moved the special NDPS court after a metropolitan magistrate on October 10 rejected their bail applications.