Mumbai (India), 19th May 2023: Former Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede filed a petition in the Bombay High Court on Friday seeking the quashing of a FIR filed by the CBI against him for allegedly demanding a Rs 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.
In his appeal to the high court’s vacation bench, Sameer Wankhede also requested that no coercive action be taken against him in connection with the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) first information report (FIR).
The Bench will hear his plea later in the day.
The NCB had apprehended Aryan Khan on October 3, 2021, following a raid aboard the Cordelia cruise ship. Within three weeks, the Bombay High Court granted Aryan bail when the anti-drug agency failed to sustain its claims against him.
The CBI recently filed a FIR against Sameer Wankhede and four others. On a report from the NCB, the CBI charged Sameer Wankhede and others with criminal conspiracy and extortion threats, as well as bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The investigation agency claims that in October 2021, the NCB, Mumbai Zone, received information about the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on the private cruise ship, and that some of its officers conspired and obtained an unfair advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused (Aryan) who was the son of superstar Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Wankhede was granted protection from coercive action by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday, with the option to approach the proper forum, which would be the Bombay High Court.
On Thursday, the CBI called Sameer Wankhede for questioning in connection with the case in Mumbai, but he did not appear before the agency’s team.
