Wankhede Gave Free Hand To Gosavi, ‘Misdeclared’ Spending On Foreign Trips: CBI

MUMBAI: Investigation has shown that approximately 17 people, including a suspected drug dealer, were named as suspects by the NCB squad of officials led by IRS officer Sameer Wankhede who raided the Cordelia cruise and is now the subject of a CBI FIR. The investigation also revealed that NCB officials gave the appearance that independent witness K P Gosavi was an NCB employee. In order to release the youth, Gosavi later wanted Rs 18 crore from the family of Aryan Khan, the actor Shah Rukh Khan's son.

The investigation also revealed that Wankhede was unable to provide an explanation for his overseas travels or the improperly reported expenses he incurred. Additionally, he engaged in the sale and acquisition of pricey wristwatches with a private party without alerting the department.

Wankhede, an IRS officer from the 2008 batch who at the time oversaw the NCB Mumbai zone, had organised a squad of officers to raid the ship off the coast of Mumbai on the evening of October 2, 2021. Following the raid, the NCB claimed to have detained 17 people, including Aryan Khan, and found 13 grammes of cocaine, 5 grammes of mephedrone, 21 grammes of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA, and Rs 1.33 lakh in cash.

The Special Enquiry Team (SET) found that the NCB's vigilance investigation, which served as the basis for the CBI's filing of the FIR, had shown that “on 02.10.2021 (the day of the Cordelia raid), the names of certain suspects were dropped from the 1st information note ‘I-Note’ and the names of certain other accused were included subsequently through modification to suit the proceedings. The Initial I-Note contained 27 names and the modified I-Note contained only 10 names”.

The report further says, “The search of many other persons whose names were available with the above-mentioned NCB officials, as suspected persons, was done but the same was not documented. A few persons who were suspects were also allowed to leave without any documentation.” It adds, “One Siddarth Shah who had the alleged role in supply of charas to Arbaz Merchant (friend of Aryan Khan) was also allowed to walk free by these officials of NCB even though Shah had accepted that he got money from Arbaz to buy charas for him and there were incriminating chats showing he was himself consuming drugs.”

“The enquiry further shows that the accused persons were brought to the NCB office in the private vehicle of the independent witness K P Gosavi. It appeared that the presence of the independent witness Gosavi around accused persons was created intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that Gosavi was an NCB personnel even though there were NCB personnel to handle the custody of the accused persons…Gosavi was allowed to be in the company of the accused persons and even allowed to come to the NCB office after the raid which is against the norms of an independent witness. In this manner, KP Gosavi took the freedom and clicked selfies and recorded the voice note of an accused.”

“It was this position that allowed KP Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza amongst others to enter into a conspiracy to extort Rs 25 crore from the family members of Aryan Khan by threatening them with the accusation of offences of possession of narcotics substances. This amount was finally settled for Rs 18 crore. A token amount of Rs 50 lakh as bribe money was also taken by KP Gosavi and D’Souza but later a part of this amount was returned back to them,” the inquiry report said.

“Wankhede, Zonal Director, in his capacity of the immediate supervisory officer had directed to take KP Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as the independent witnesses in the proceedings against the accused and directed VV Singh (NCB Superintendent) to let KP Gosavi handle the accused while taking him to NCB office thereby allowing a freehand to Gosavi and others in order to create such a visual impression of KP Gosavi having the custody of the accused and escorting/dragging him towards the Mumbai NCB office.”

Further, the NCB report says, “Wankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and had apparently, misdeclared the expenditure on his foreign visits. He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properly. It was also found that Wankhede indulged himself in sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches with a private entity Viral Rajan, without intimating the department.

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