Superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh and intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad were suspended on Tuesday, a senior NCB official said, adding that the action had nothing to do with the Cordelia case but was linked to another case. TWO OFFICIALS of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), who were part of the team investigating the Cordelia drugs seizure case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested, have been suspended for “deliberate dereliction of duty” that helped an accused in an unrelated drugs case secure bail.
Superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh and intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad were suspended on Tuesday, a senior NCB official said, adding that the action had nothing to do with the Cordelia case but was linked to another case.
Incidentally, an inquiry had been ordered in the Cordelia case after allegations, including those of seeking bribe, were made against the then NCB Superintendent Sameer Wankhede and his team, including Singh and Prasad. So far the findings of the inquiry conducted by Deputy Director Gyaneshwar Singh have not been made public.
According to sources, the two officials were suspended in connection with a case involving seizure of 310 gm of contraband, in which one Sahil Shah alias Flacko was termed as the “mastermind” by the NCB. While two accused, Ganesh Shere and Siddhanth Amin, were arrested, the NCB team was looking for Shah.
Shah eventually surrendered on January 28. However, he was later granted bail.
It was suspected that it was primarily due to lack of efforts on the part of Singh and Prasad that the accused managed to secure bail and hence an inquiry was ordered. “It was based on the inquiry report that they were placed under suspension by the DG NCB,” an official said.
Prior to this, there had been allegations against Wankhede’s team – including Singh and Prasad – in connection with their probe into the Cordelia case.
NCP leader Nawab Malik had alleged how the NCB had used same panchas – or witnesses – in multiple cases. He had alleged that in some cases the witnesses themselves had a criminal record. Sources said that Prasad was involved in drawing up panchnamas in several cases.
Malik had earlier alleged that when his son-in-law Samir Khan was arrested in connection with a drugs case in January this year, Singh had demanded a Land Cruiser from him.
The investigations in the Cordelia case had come under the scanner following allegations by a panch witness, Prabahakar Sail.
Sail, who died earlier this month, had said that he and K P Gosavi, another panch witness in the Cordelia case, were in the latter’s car on the night Aryan was arrested. He had alleged that he overheard Gosavi talk to one Sam D’Souza over the phone about demanding Rs 25 crore to settle the matter.
In his affidavit, Sail claimed to have overheard Gosavi say, “You put a bomb of 25 crore and let’s settle at 18 final, because we have to give 8 crore to Sameer Wankhede.”
Wankhede had denied the allegations of extortion.
With ENS, New Delhi
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