NCB ‘witness’ claims Rs 25 crore sought to let off Aryan Khan

Prabhakar Sail, the ‘independent witness’, told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D’Souza over the phone after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office after the October 3 raid about a demand of Rs 25 crore and to settle at Rs 18 crore as they “have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede”, the zonal director of NCB.

He also claimed NCB officials had asked him to sign nine to ten blank papers.

However, a senior NCB official denied the allegations, terming them as “completely false and malicious”. Sail is the personal bodyguard of Gosavi, who is absconding in a 2018 job cheating case.

Sail, who had accompanied Gosavi on the night of the raid, said that after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office, Gosavi met D’Souza.Sail claimed he overheard Gosavi telling D’Souza over the phone about a demand of Rs 25 crore and to settle at Rs 18 crore as they “have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede”.

The NCB, while stating that Wankhede has categorically denied the allegations, also said that as the matter is sub judice, Sail should have submitted his prayer to the court if he had anything to say.

Narcotics Control Bureau’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Sunday approached the Mumbai police commissioner seeking protection from likely legal action “being planned” against him by unknown persons to falsely frame him concerning an alleged vigilance related issue.