Narcotics Control Bureau

According to sources, the Ministry has taken a serious view on the alleged charges of corruption against the Mumbai Zonal Director of NCB Sameer Wankhede and also the way the arrests were made in the case. Sources, aware of these developments, claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also annoyed with the NCB officials about the new turns in the case which took place during the last week.

For, among those present on the ship on October 2 was Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan and producer Gauri, besides a few others from the glam-entertainment world. Truly, a 'heady' ambience for the NCB's high-profile operation, a first-ever on a luxury cruiser in India, and he effected a big haul of big names, but barely any worthwhile quantity of drugs.

They are Nupur Satija, Gomit Chopra -- both guests, Gopalji Anand, Samir Sehgal, Manav Singhal, Bhaskar Arora -- who were event organisers and Aachit Kumar, a 22-year old student who the NCB has claimed was the drug supplier to Aryan Khan.

The NCP minister further claimed that Kashiff Khan is a close friend of Wankhede who is probing the Cordelia cruise drug case. He also alleged that Kashiff runs drugs, sex, and porn rackets and questioned why NCB local chief Wankhede did not arrest Kashiff when he was the organiser of the October 2 rave party.

Rushing to the Bombay High Court on Thursday, a division bench comprising Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice S.V. Kotwal granted him partial relief after an assurance from the Mumbai Police. "I am personally attacked by the state... My apprehension is they will arrest me. I want interim protection in the form of no coercive action," Wankhede appealed to the division bench.

The team leader Gyaneshwar Singh said that they have collected lot of documents and other evidences from him and he has submitted his version in the matter. "If needed, we shall probe further and ask for more documents in the case," Singh said this evening. Simultaneously, he said the NCB vigilance team has requested the other two "Panch-Wintesses" "Prabhakar Sail-ji and Kiran Gosavi-ji" to appear before them to record their statements.

Senior counsel and former Attorney General of India Mukul Rohatgi and senior counsel Amit Desai, representing Aryan and Arbaaz Merchant, while lawyer Ali Kaashik Khan Deshmukh appeared for Munmun Dhamecha, concluded their argument before Justice N. W. Sambre. Additional Solicitor General of India Anil Singh, along with Special Public Prosecutor Adwait Sethna, appearing for Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) will reply to their arguments

The NCP leader released personal wedding photographs of Sameer Wankhede in a series of tweets. He captioned the photo as 'Photo of a Sweet Couple -Sameer Dawood Wankhede and Dr. Shabana Qureshi'. The pictures are of the NCB officer's first marriage that was performed on December 7, 2006, at 8 p.m. in Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri West.

Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner (Crime), on Wednesday said the officials of city Crime Branch have conducted raids in the residence of the accused person on specific inputs and seized 200 MDMA-ecstasy tablets and 100 gram MDMA crystals, among others. The investigations have revealed that one of the accomplices of the accused stayed in Goa and carried out drug peddling operations. The accused procured the drugs in Goa through post from Poland and in turn supplied them to drug peddlers of different cities across the country.

Contending that the bail plea is devoid of merit and must be dismissed, the NCB said that investigations have revealed Khan's international links which show that he is not a mere consumer as claimed by him, prima facie point towards illegal drug procurements.