Cordelia drug bust case: NCB SIT records Aryan’s statement

Earlier, the NCB SIT had recorded the statement of Arbaaz Khan, a friend of Aryan who too had been arrested in the case along with 19 others.

An official said that Khan was summoned by NCB and he appeared in Navi Mumbai to record his statement. Earlier in the day he had gone to the Mumbai office of NCB to mark attendance as per his bail condition. An official said that in order to avoid media glare he was called to Navi Mumbai where his statement was recorded.

An official said they will record the statement of the other arrested accused as part of their probe.

A total of six cases were transferred to the SIT from the Mumbai Zonal Unit of the NCB following allegations against its director Sameer Wankhede. The six cases include the Cordelia drug bust case and the case involving NCP leader Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan. Even in that case, the SIT has recorded the statement of accused Karan Sajnani.

Apart from the SIT, in the Vigilance enquiry against Wankhede, the Vigilance team led by Deputy DG Gyaneshwar Singh approached a court in Mumbai seeking permissions to record the statement of K P Gosavi, who is currently in police custody in connection with a cheating case. Gosavi is a witness in the Cordelia drug bust case.

“We have made an application seeking permission to record his statement once he is in judicial custody. The court will hear the matter on Monday,” Singh said. Singh added that Gosavi’s statement will be important as witness Prabhakar Sail made allegations against him.

Singh said that during the enquiry so far they have recorded statements of nearly 15 persons and are likely to summon five-six more persons. The NCB is also likely to summon Pooja Dadlani, manager of Shah Rukh Khan.

Sail in his statement had alleged that Gosavi had tried to take money from Dadlani to “help” Aryan on October 2 night when he was detained by NCB from outside the Cordelia cruise ship.

Singh further said that they had gone through “voluminous electronic data”, visited the crime scene and conducted reconstruction of the crime scene. He said he had also met the Mumbai Police Commissioner, who promised to assist with the NCB’s enquiry. He added that the NCB sought CCTV footage of some spots in the city and has already received some of this footage.

The Vigilance team that will now head to Delhi is likely to return to the city to continue with its probe. Sources said within the next few weeks the Vigilance committee is likely to complete the enquiry and submit a report to the DG NCB, that will decide the fate of Wankhede in connection with the corruption allegations.