Cordelia Cruise drug bust case: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday questioned accused Sanville alias Sam D'Souza for the matter relating to the alleged bribe demand of Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan for letting off his son Aryan Khan in the 2021 Cordelia cruise drug bust case, officials said.
D'Souza, who is listed as accused number 5 in the CBI FIR, was given a third notice last week to appear before the central probe agency for questioning at the Delhi office, the officials added.
What CBI sources said
According to CBI sources, till now it has been revealed in the investigation that Gosavi and D'Souza were conspirators in extorting Rs 25 crores from the actor.
"They threatened Aryan Khan on the charge of possessing drugs at the direction of the then Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede. Later the extortion money folded into Rs 18 crore, of which the initial amount of Rs 50 lakh was taken. However, later this money was returned," sources said.
The accused's plea for anticipatory bail before the Special CBI court in Mumbai was rejected. However, former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede who is the main accused in the case, was granted interim protection by the Bombay High Court till June 23.
CBI claimed that D'Souza was the main part of the deal between witness KP Gosavi and Shah Rukh Khan's manager for not implicating Aryan Khan in the drug matter.
NCB had arrested Aryan Khan on October 3, 2021. The development had come a day after NCB raided the Cordelia cruise ship. Later on October 28, 2021, Aryan was granted bail by the Bombay High Court.
Twist in the case
A twist in the case which made regularly into the headlines came after a witness, Prabhakar Sail, claimed in 2021 that Rs 25 crore was demanded by some persons including an NCB official, including witness Gosavi, to not implicate Aryan Khan.
Sail had earlier told the media that he had overheard Gosavi telling D'Souza over the phone regarding demanding Rs 25 crore after Aryan Khan was taken to the NCB office following the raid on the cruise.
NCB had filed a 6,000-page chargesheet against 14 accused persons on May 27 last year and gave a clean chit to Shah Rukh Khan's son.
The officials had said that six people including Aryan Khan were not named in the chargesheet due to 'lack of sufficient evidence'.
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