Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan continues to remain in the headlines. He was arrested in connection to drugs seized on a cruise by the Narcotics Control Bureau. It’s been a few weeks since he was arrested along with 8 others who were on the ship. On October 20, the special NDPS court rejected Aryan Khan’s bail plea following which he reached High Court to file a bail application. Bombay High Court will hear his bail plea on October 26. Former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi will represent Khan in the court today. Today, on the day of his bail hearing, Aryan Khan has filed a two-page affidavit before the Bombay High Court claiming that he has no connection with the witness Prabhakar Sail of the allegations raised in the affidavit by Sail against NCB Zonal Director, Sameer Wankhede.
The affidavit was filed ahead of the hearing in front of a single judge of Bombay High Court, Justice Nitin Sambre. According to Bar and Bench, “Khan in his affidavit said that he has nothing to do with the allegations and counter-allegations that are currently in public and on social media between Sail, Wankhede and other personalities. Khan also categorically said that he does not have any allegation against anyone in the prosecution department. Khan in his affidavit, specifically stated that he has no connection with Sail.” Aryan Khan prayed that his bail plea should be decided on merits uninfluenced by the allegations raised by Sail against Sameer Wankhede.
According to the New Indian Express, an independent witness of NCB, Prabhakar Raghoji Sail, claimed that “Rs. 25 crore pay-off was demanded by NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede and others from Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to release his son Aryan Khan.” However, a senior NCB official rubbished these claims stating they are false and malicious.
A video was released by Sail along with a notarized affidavit where he claims that after NCB had detained Aryan Khan after the raid on the cruise, he had overheard a phone call which was made to Shah Rukh Khan’s manager by KP Gosavi and Sam D’Souza at Lower Parel, Mumbai. Furthermore, Sail is reportedly the personal bodyguard of Gosavi, who is allegedly absconding amid multiple fraud cases and whose selfie with Aryan Khan had gone viral on social media. He was reportedly said to be one of the independent witnesses in the case. Sail, in his affidavit, alleged that Gosavi demanded Rs. 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan but settled at Rs. 18 crore to release Aryan Khan.
According to New Indian Express, Saif said in his affidavit, “Out of the total Rs. 18 crores, Rs. 8 crore was meant for Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede while the balance amount was to be shared among them. The meeting took place at Lower Parel where Shah Rukh Khan’s manager came in blue Mercedes to meet them. But, there was no positive response from Shah Rukh Khan’s manager.”
Aryan Khan was detained by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 2, 2021, after the NCB raided a cruise ship. He was arrested on October 3 under Section 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.