NCB grills Sameer Wankhede for 3 hours; says 'he will continue to probe cruise drug bust' 

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Deputy DG Gyaneshwar Singh on Wednesday said that NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede will continue to be the investigator in the Mumbai cruise drugs bust case. He also informed that no evidence has been found against him.

Wankhede was questioned for three hours by the NCB over the allegations against him and filed a 7-page reply, supporting his family and denying all the claims against him, sources said. He submitted the documents related to the case sought by the NCB and the agency has sought that notices also be served to witnesses Prabhakar Sail and KP Gosavi.

NCB Deputy Director General Mutha Ashok Jain said, "The vigilance team is taking the statement of Sameer Wankhede. I can't comment on that. It is happening at a different place." When asked if politicisation of the investigation is happening, he said "no comments".

Sameer Wankhede and his team exposed the high-profile rave party on a Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. They entered the cruise guise as passengers and conducted the raid in which eight people were arrested, including Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan. Till now, 20 people have been arrested, of which, two are out on bail.

Gyaneshwar Singh said that a special team to investigate the case of alleged extortion has been formed by NCB. "We want KP Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail to appear before us. We are unable to reach out to them through lawyers and their contact numbers. We haven’t found anything incriminating against Wankhede. We had asked him to provide certain documents, which he did. If required, we will call him again," he said.

NCB probes allegations of corruption against Sameer Wankhede.

A five-member team of NCB reached Mumbai on Wednesday to probe allegations of corruption level by Prabhakar Sail against Sameer Wankhede. The personal bodyguard of NCB witness KP Gosavi had alleged that Gosavi took Rs 50 lakh from a person after the cruise drugs bust. "I worked as a bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi. I assisted him during the Mumbai cruise drugs case," he said.

He also alleged that he overheard a conversation between Gosavi and one Sam D'Souza of 18 crore extortion deal. Out of which, Rs 8 crore was supposed to be given to Sameer Wankhede, he had alleged.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police has also appointed an ACP-level officer to probe the extortion claims. "All the complaints received against Wankhede will be probed by the officer. Four police stations in Mumbai have received such complaints so far," said police.