Param Bir missing, NCP's Nawab Malik accuses NCB, BJP of extortion racket in Mumbai

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has gone all out in its attack against the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) that is investigating several high-profile cases linked to Bollywood, to unearth an 'international drug nexus'.

Days after drawing connections between the NCB and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik has now claimed that the duo is running "an extortion racket" in the city.

This comes on a day when Senior advocate Darius Khambata, representing the Maharashtra government, told the Bombay High Court that the state government is willing to withdraw its May 24 statement assuring no coercive action, including arrest against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh in a 2015 case, who has now gone missing amid recent corruption allegations. He had sought the quashing of an FIR filed against him in an atrocity case.

Claiming that the anti-drug agency is filing "bogus" cases against people, the NCP Spokesperson demanded a judicial probe in all the matters investigated by it over the past year. He also demanded that the mobile phone and WhatsApp chats of NCB officer Sameer Wankhede be checked to reveal his connections with the saffron party.

Nawab Malik, whose son-in-law was recently arrested over alleged possession of drugs, claimed that the NCB falsely accuses people of drug consumption and deliberately avoids conducting urine tests of the accused. He alleged that the central anti-drug agency is 'terrorizing Mumbai', and threatened to approach the court seeking a judicial probe into the NCB's functioning.

Nawab Malik says Mumbai cruise

Referring to the Mumbai cruise drugs case in which Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan has been arrested, Nawab Malik rubbished the matter as fraudulent. He said that NCB is just collecting electronic evidence to defame people and terrorize the city. 

"We have compiled many pieces of evidence against the NCB too. Possibly few people will approach the court on this matter," he told Republic TV. 

Earlier, Malik had claimed that BJP leaders are in talks with NCB's Sameer Wankhede. He also alleged that the Cordelia cruise party was busted by the agency on the "directions of the party."

On October 3, the NCB busted a high-profile party on a cruise ship that was en route from Mumbai to Goa. The party allegedly involving celebrities like Aryan Khan, was busted by the NCB, and narcotic substances such as cocaine, hashish, MD were recovered. Over eight people, including Aryan Khan, were detained that day, followed by subsequent arrests of drug suppliers.

Aryan Khan and three other accused approached the relevant courts for bail but were denied relief both times. Khan's legal team approached the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, seeking bail.

NCB rebuts Nawab Malik

The anti-drug agency has refuted NCP's allegations and called them 'frivolous'.

"All allegations levelled against NCB are baseless, motivated, afterthought and prejudice. Such statements are based on conjecture and assumptions that are frivolous and malicious in view of documents and records produced by NCB," NCB Deputy DG Gyaneshwar Singh said.

Earlier, the agency had stated that allegations made against it are likely retaliatory due to its past action.

Image: PTI/ANI