Khan media reports ‘not true’
THE Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) this week dismissed reports suggesting that the agency had cleared Aryan Khan, who was nabbed in a drugs case in October.
Khan is the son of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan.
NCB deputy director-general Sanjay Singh and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) issued a statement claiming that “the media reports are not true and they are just speculations”, since “the investigation is not yet complete”.
Singh said “these reports were not cross-checked with the NCB, and it would be premature to say anything at this stage”.
However, few in Maharashtra believed the agency’s contentions, as state political leaders whacked the NCB, reiterating how “central probe agencies” were being “grossly misused” by the BJP against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
The ruling MVA allies, Shiv Sena-nationalist Congress Party (Ncp)-congress, said it was clear that though there was no evidence against Aryan Khan, he was deliberately “framed” by the former NCB Mumbai Zonal director Sameer Wankhede.
The media reports claimed that the NCB-SIT ostensibly found no evidence to link Khan to the larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs syndicate, besides pointing at the glaring lapses in the high-profile raids on the luxury ship Cordelia Cruises on October 2, 2021, in full media glare.
Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said this was “another case of abuse of the central agencies”, and demanded to know who was behind it.
“Those who are misusing the central probe agencies will go to jail. The NCB-SIT report has come and it’s proved that Aryan was framed because he’s Shah Rukh Khan’s son. The truth has finally emerged, hasn’t it? Raut asked.
Congress state general secretary Sachin Sawan said the SIT had revealed that Khan did not have drugs with him and had exposed the mistakes committed by Wankhede’s team during the (ship) raids.
Sawant said it was clear now that the allegations of an extortion racket were true, and demanded why no action had been taken against NCB officials for violation of its rulebook.
NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said the NCB-SIT report had confirmed Nawab Malik’s campaign for the past five months that the “whole Cordelia Cruises ship raid was a big farjiwada (hoax)” with the involvement of BJP activists working with Wankhede.
The raids on the Cordelia Cruises ship led to the arrest of 20 people. They were all released on bail. |