Mumbai Drug Bust: NCB Rubbishes NCP Questions on Credentials of 2 'Officials' During Raid

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said on Wednesday that two persons — Manish Bhanushali and Kiran Gosavi — were among more than half-a-dozen of its “independent witnesses” during the October 2 rave party raid on the luxury ship Cordelia Cruise.

The NCB scoffed the claims of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik as “baseless, with malice to malign the agency’s image and in retaliation against an earlier action of the NCB”.

The NCP has alleged that the NCB’s raid was “fake”, and no narcotic drugs were found during it.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has so far arrested 17 people, including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan, after allegedly seizing drugs from the Goa-bound ship on Saturday. “The drama (the raid) was fake. They did not find drugs on the ship,” NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik had said. He also released a few videos, purportedly of the raid. A man, who is seen escorting Aryan Khan in one of the videos, was not an NCB official, and his social media profile states that he is a private detective based in Kuala Lumpur, the NCP leader alleged.

Further, two men are seen escorting Arbaaz Merchant, also arrested in the case, in another video, and one of them is a member of the BJP, Malik alleged. If these two men are not officials of the NCB, then why were they escorting two high-profile people (Khan and Merchant),” he asked.

The man seen with Merchant was in Gujarat on September 21-22 and could be connected to the seizure of about 3,000 kilograms of heroin at Mundra Port, Malik claimed, asking the BJP to come clear on this person’s credentials. “The entire NCB is being used by the BJP to malign people, the Maharashtra government and Bollywood,” Malik said, alleging that the anti-drug agency was targeting those who are against the saffron party.

Notably, Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan had been arrested by the NCB on January 13, 2021, in an alleged drug case. He got bail in September.

Addressing a press conference shortly after the NCP’s explosive allegations, the NCB asserted that it functions in a professional and legally transparent manner, and carries out its duties without any bias, and that even the ‘panchnamas’ were done as per the law.

(With agencies)

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