NCP calls NCB’S cruise raid ‘fake’; agency, BJP hit back
MUMBAI: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday termed the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 2 as “fake”, alleging no drugs were found during it, even as it questioned the presence of two persons along with the NCB team during the raid, claiming one of them was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Both the NCB and BJP denied the NCP charges as “baseless”.
Maharashtra minorities affairs minister and NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik on Wednesday claimed that the two men, who escorted Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and another accused Arbaaz Merchant to the NCB’S Mumbai office were private individuals, adding the arrest was a conspiracy involving the NCB and the BJP to defame Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the film industry.
“One of them is Manish Bhanushali, who claims to be a BJP office-bearer and the other is KP Gosawi, who claims to be a private detective,” said Malik at a press conference in Mumbai. Photographs of Gosawi, posing with Khan, went viral a few days ago. He also released a few videos, purportedly of the raid.
In one of the videos, Gosawi can be seen bringing Aryan Khan to NCB office and in the second, Bhanushali can be seen bringing Merchant to the NCB office, Malik alleged.
“According to the Bhanushali’s Facebook profile, he is a BJP vice president and has photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda...,” Malik claimed.
Meanwhile, Bhanushali told a TV channel that he was a BJP worker and that the NCB conducted the raid based on his tip. “I did not bring Arbaaz to the NCP office but was accompanying the NCB officers as I was asked by them to come and sign documents as a witness. The raid was conducted with the help of the information provided by me,” Bhanushali told ABP Majha, a Marathi news channel.
NCB deputy director general Gyaneshwar Singh said there were nine witnesses and Bhanushali and Gosawi were two of them. “The allegations made against the agency are baseless and if anyone has any reservation, he or she can approach the court,” Singh said.
BJP’S Devendra Fadnavis said, “...he (Nawab Malik) should ask whether there were drugs in the party or not? Whether the party took place or not?...”