01:35
Aryan Khan case: Relief to Sameer Wankhede, Bombay HC asks CBI not to take coercive action till May 22
He said the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Wankhede reached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at Bandra-Kurla Complex at around 10.30 am.
Entering the office, Wankhede told reporters that he had “faith in the judiciary”.
He was allowed a lunch break during the interrogation, the officer said. Wankhede left the CBI office at around 4.30 pm.
Wankhede did not answer questions from media persons waiting outside the CBI office, but only said ‘Satyamev Jayate’.
03:03
Aryan Khan bribery case: Sameer Wankhede gets 5 days’ protection from arrest, time to approach Bombay HC
On Saturday too, the CBI had questioned Wankhede for more than five hours.
After leaving the CBI office at around 4.30 pm on Saturday, Wankhede along with his family members went to the Siddhivinayak temple. Prabhadevi in Mumbai.
The central agency had registered a case against Wankhede and four others on May 11 for alleged criminal conspiracy and extortion threats besides provisions related to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
On Friday, Wankhede got relief from the Bombay High Court which directed the CBI not to take any “coercive action” like arrest against him till May 22.
02:45
New angle in Aryan Khan drug case, arrested model Munmun Dhamecha says former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede framed her for fame
Seeking quashing of FIR, Wankhede alleges before HC that “draft complaint” named in 2021 drugs-on-cruise case Aryan Khan as an accused, but this was later changed and Aryan’s name was dropped.
Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB here on October 3, 2021 following an alleged drug seizure on the Cordelia cruise ship. He was granted bail by the High Court three weeks later as the anti-drugs agency had failed to prove its allegations against him.
The CBI alleged that the Mumbai Zone of the NCB received information about the consumption and possession of narcotics by various persons on a cruise ship in October 2021 and that some officers of the NCB conspired to take bribe from the accused in exchange for their release.
Wankhede had denied the allegations leveled against him. His plea in the HC provided transcripts of phone chats Aryan had with Shah Rukh Khan while he was in NCB custody. It cited Khan as being kind to his son from Wankhede and praised the officer for his “honesty”.
(With PTI inputs)