Mumbai Police record statement of witness Prabhakar Sail over allegation of extortion bid in Aryan Khan case

Mumbai: Mumbai Police recorded the statement of independent witness Prabhakar Sail for over eight hours in connection with his allegation of an extortion attempt by NCB officials in the drugs seizure case involving Aryan Khan, an official said on Wednesday. Sail appeared before the city police on Tuesday evening and the process of recording his statement was completed at around 3 am on Wednesday, he said. After recording his statement, Sail left the office of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Azad Maidan, early on Wednesday, the official said. He has been provided protection by the city police in the wake of revelations he made in his application, the official said. On Tuesday, Sail’s lawyer Tushar Khandare claimed that his client was “misused” during the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month during which drugs were allegedly seized and Aryan Khan, actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, was arrested. The city police on Tuesday said they received four applications alleging extortion by NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede and other officials, and have launched an inquiry to verify these claims. One of the applications was sent by Sail, who had alleged that he overheard K P Gosavi, another witness in the cruise ship raid case, talking to one Sam D’Souza over the phone about a demand of Rs 25 crore including Rs 8 crore for Sameer Wankhede, police said. Wankhede, the IRS officer who visited the NCB office in Delhi on Tuesday, has denied the allegations. A police official earlier said they will verify claims made by Sail. Police teams are also verifying locations of mobile phone numbers as well as CCTV footages of various places mentioned in Sail’s application, he had said, adding that appropriate action will be taken after the inquiry. The Mumbai Police have also received two applications against Maharashtra cabinet minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik an official earlier said without elaborating. Malik has raised a string of allegations against Sameer Wankhede and also accused him of illegal phone tapping and forging his documents to secure a job. Sail on Tuesday said he stood by his allegation of extortion demand against Wankhede and others, and nobody had tutored him.