The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has suspended two of its officers, Vishwa Vijay Singh and Ashish Ranjan Prasad.
Who were part of the team that raided the yacht Cordelia in October last year and arrested Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
Singh, superintendent of police in NCB’s Mumbai Zone, and Prasad, intelligence officer there, were sent letters on Wednesday informing that they were suspended pending an enquiry against them.
The director general of NCB, S N Pradhan, however, said, “Their suspension has nothing to do with the Aryan Khan probe but for procedural and vigilance lapses in a separate matter”. “The decision to suspend them has been taken on the basis of a report submitted by zonal director and regional director (of Mumbai),” the DG said.
Pradhan added that the “vigilance enquiry in Cordelia case is still continuing”.
The narcotics enforcement agency didn’t elaborate on the exact charges against Singh and Prasad and the case in which they have been handed the suspension.
An officer, who didn’t want to be named, said, “Several irregularities were found in the way investigations were carried out by several members of this (Mumbai Zone) team”.
When contacted, V V Singh said, “I have not been told about the charges (against me) so I cannot say anything. Please ask the department”. Prasad could not be located for comments.
HT reported on March 2 that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is now investigating Aryan Khan case, has not found evidence that the actor’s son was part of a larger drugs conspiracy or an international drugs trafficking syndicate.
SIT had also found several irregularities in the dramatic raid, which was led by NCB’s former Mumbai Zonal Unit director Sameer Wankhede.
Contrary to the allegations of NCB’s Mumbai unit, SIT, formed after the Bombay high court granted bail to Khan on October 28, found that Khan was never in possession of drugs hence there was no need to take his phone and check his chats; the chats didn’t suggest Khan was part of any international syndicate; the raid was not video-recorded as mandated by NCB manual; and the drugs recovered from multiple accused arrested in the case shown as single recovery.
As reported by HT, while nothing concrete establishing a conspiracy has been found against Aryan, others who were found in possession of drugs will be charge sheeted.
NCB recently sought some more time from a Mumbai court to file the charge sheet in the case.
People familiar with the investigations said Aryan Khan will most likely be given a clean chit in the charge sheet but a legal opinion will be taken before the final decision.
Sameer Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service officer, who has since been sent back from NCB, led a team of officers and some witnesses on the night of October 2 last year to raid a cruise ship, Cordelia, at International Cruise Terminal at Green Gate in Mumbai. NCB seized 13 grams of cocaine, five grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA (Ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash from the cruise vessel.
From the cruise ship, the agency intercepted 14 persons and after hours of interrogation placed Aryan Khan, 24, Arbaaz Merchant, 26, and Munmum Dhamecha, 28, under arrest on the afternoon of October 3. Subsequently, the agency arrested 17 more persons in connection with the raid.
Relying on WhatsApp chats, Wankhede’s team claimed the accused were part of a larger conspiracy. It alleged that Aryan Khan was in touch with some foreign drug supplier and the chats referred to “hard drugs” and “bulk quantities”.
However, rejecting NCB’s claims, a single bench of justice Nitin W Sambre of the Bombay high court noted that there was no evidence to suggest the existence of any conspiracy.