Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who has been accused of demanding a Rs 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case, has been granted relief from arrest by the Bombay High Court until May 22.
Wankhede on Friday moved a petition before the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of an FIR filed against him by the CBI in the case.
Advocate Kuldeep Patil, appearing for the CBI told the court that no interim protection should be granted.
In the petition moved before a vacation bench of the high court, Wankhede also sought that no coercive action related to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) first information report (FIR) be taken against him. The CBI filed the FIR against Wankhede and four others recently.
Wankhede also attached his chats with Shah Rukh Khan in the petition, ANI reported.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, after a raid on the Cordelia cruise ship. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after three weeks as the anti-drug agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
The CBI booked Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion, besides under provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the NCB.
The probe agency has alleged that the NCB, Mumbai Zone, had received information in October 2021 related to the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on the private cruise ship and that some of its officers conspired and obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted protection from coercive action to Wankhede for five days with the liberty to approach the appropriate forum, which would be the Bombay High Court.
The CBI summoned Wankhede for questioning in Mumbai on Thursday in connection with the case, but he did not appear before the agency’s team.
(With PTI inputs)
Comments
0 comment