Sameer Wankhede case: CBI FIR reveals conspiracy to extort Rs 25 crore from Aryan Khan

According to the FIR, the NCB had formed a Special Enquiry Team (SET) to probe allegations of improper performance of duty by certain officials of the NCB to obtain undue advantages from persons in Cordelia Cruise case. A total 20 people, including Aryan Khan were arrested on October 2, 2021.

The CBI FIR said that Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail were taken as independent witnesses in one of the incidents in the instant case.

"The enquiry conducted by the SET revealed that on 2nd October, 2021, 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 names 27 names and the modified I-Note contained only 10 names,” the FIR read.

"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," the complaint read.

It added that a few people, who were suspects, were allowed to leave without any documentation. "Siddharth Shah, who had the alleged role in supply of Charas (cannabis) to Arbaz Merchant, was also allowed to walk free by NCB Mumbai officials even though he accepted that he got money from Arbaz to buy Charas for him," the complaint said.

Speaking about role of Gosavi in extortion in this matter, the CBI said the presence of independent witness KP Gosavi around accused persons "was created intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that Gosavi was an NCB personnel".

The CBI said Gosavi was allowed to come to NCB office after the raid — which is against the norms of an independent witness and "he took the freedom to click selfies and recorded voice note of an accused (Aryan Khan)".

"Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza amongst others entered into a conspiracy to extort an amount of Rs 25 crores from family of alleged accused Aryan Khan by threatening them of accusation of offences of possession of narcotics substances," the CBI said.

The probe agency further alleged that this amount was finally settled for Rs 18 crore. "A token amount of Rs 50 lakh as bribe money was also taken by Gosavi and D’Souza but later a part of this amount was returned back by them," it said.

As per SET investigation, it was later revealed that Wankhede had directed Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as independent witness in the proceedings against the accused. He had even directed VV Singh to let Gosavi handle the accused thereby allowing a freehand to Gosavi in order to create such a visual of Gosavi having custody of accused.

"Allegations of criminal misconduct and corrupt practices of Wankhede independently could not sufficiently justify his acquired assets as per their declared income," the CBI said.

The FIR further alleged that Wankhede has not "properly explained his foreign visits and had mis-declared the expenditure on his foreign travels". It added that Wankhede was indulged in sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches with a private entity.

All the accused in the case were booked under section 120B and 388 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

KP Gosavi was a witness of the NCB in the Aryan Khan case. He claimed himself to be an independent investigator and NCB's independent witness in the Aryan Khan case.

After Aryan was arrested from the cruise rave party, Gosavi had clicked a photo with him and shared it on social media. The pictured had went viral.

Gosavi's former aide Prabhakar Sail claimed that he was made a witness in the Aryan Khan case. He alleged that he was made to sign on blank papers by Sameer Wankhede.

Citing some telephonic conversation between Gosavi and another person that he overheard, Sail said there was an arrangement of getting Rs 25 crore in exchange for Aryan's release. Of the amount, Sameer Wankhede was supposed to get some, Sail had alleged.

Out of total 20 arrested accused, six people were not chargesheeted by the NCB. These six people included Aryan Khan, Avin Shahu, Gopal ji Anand, Samir Saighan, Bhaskar Aroda and Manav Singhal

The other 14 people who were chargesheeted were: Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Vikrant Chhokar, Mohak Jaiswal, Ishmeet Singh Chadha, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Satija, Abdul Kadar Shaikh, Shreyas Nair, Manish Rajgariya, Aachit Kumar, Chinedu Igwe, Shivraj Harijan and Okoro Uzeoma.