DNA Special: How ‘hero cop’ of Aryan Khan drug bust case in Mumbai became the real villain

The arrest of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was one of the biggest news of 2021 when he was held by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) where he was accused of consuming drugs aboard a luxury cruise in Mumbai. The entire operation was headed by hero cop Sameer Wankhede.

Sameer Wankhede, who was the NCB zonal director at the time, had headed the arrest of Aryan Khan in October 2021 and had emerged as a hero cop. But now, it is being uncovered that the hero cop was actually the villain in the story of Aryan Khan.

An FIR has been registered against Sameer Wankhede, who has been accused of bribery and criminal misconduct during the Aryan Khan drug case. According to this FIR, a conspiracy was hatched to extort money through the cruise drugs case. And this conspiracy was hatched by Sameer Wankhede, director of the Mumbai zone in NCB himself.

According to this FIR, Sameer Wankhede is the main accused in this extortion conspiracy. He was accompanied by the then NCB superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh and NCB Intelligence Officer Ashish Ranjan were also present.

It is clearly written in this FIR of CBI that on October 2, 2021, Aryan Khan and the other accused were arrested from a private cruise on charges of taking drugs and smuggling drugs. In this FIR, the details of all those developments after that raid have also been written which proves that Sameer Wankhede was the leader of this extortion racket.

There were two main characters in the Aryan Khan drug case conspiracy, who wanted to extract money from his father Shah Rukh Khan – Sameer Wankhede and KP Gosavi. Gosavi was the NCB personnel whose selfie with Aryan Khan had sparked a major controversy.

According to the FIR filed by the CBI, Sameer Wankhede had aided the witnesses of the drug case in threatening Shah Rukh Khan to pay Rs 25 crore or else his son Aryan Khan will be sent to jail in relation to the Mumbai cruise drug bust case.

Sameer Wankhede had reportedly given the custody of Aryan Khan to KP Gosavi and had granted him permission to click his photos and record his voice. Wankhede lates used Gosavi to extort Rs 25 crore from Aryan Khan's family. Later, the deal was finalized for Rs 18 crore. Out of this, Rs 50 lakh was also delivered as a token amount to KP Gosavi and his associate D'Souza on behalf of Shah Rukh Khan.

In a CCTV footage, Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani is seen getting down from the car and carrying a bag. It was said that this was the video of the same time when the payment was made to Gosavi. In return, Aryan Khan was to be released. However, the deal was later broken and the payment of Rs 50 lakh was returned.

In the FIR, it has been alleged that all these transactions have been made on behalf of Sameer Wankhede, who had reportedly run this extortion mission from Shah Rukh Khan.

READ | New twist in Aryan Khan drug case: SRK’s family threatened, Rs 25 crore bribe angle against Sameer Wankhede