Aryan Khan on Sunday refused the summons of the NCB’s new Special Investigation Team (SIT) as he is ‘experiencing symptoms similar to Covid-19’, sources told CNN-News18. The new team, headed by DDG NCB Sanjay Singh, on Saturday took over the drug bust case, which is among five other cases that were being led by the agency’s zonal director, Sameer Wankhede, who is facing a departmental probe on extortion allegations.
Accused in the drugs-on-cruise case, Aryan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was summoned by the Narcotics Control Bureau on Sunday, sources said. However, the actor’s son has requested another date to join the investigations, sources said, adding that the NCB will make a decision after looking at his medical reports.
On October 3, the NCB had raided a cruise off the Mumbai coast for illegal drugs, which led to the arrest of Aryan, among many others. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28 after spending 25 days in jail. Following a slew of extortion and bribery allegations against Wankhede, who spearheaded the bust, the NCB transferred the case from him to the agency’s central team.
Aryan Khan’s friend and co-accused in the drug bust case, Arbaaz Merchant, and Achit Kumar were also summoned by the agency. The duo, who arrived at the NCB office in south Mumbai separately between 11:30 am-12 noon, was grilled for over nine hours. Sources said that other accused in the six cases will also be summoned by the NCB SIT as ‘a routine procedure after a new team comes in’. Details in the Mumbai cruise drugs case will also be verified, the sources said.
The SIT had reached Mumbai on Saturday from Delhi and visited the NCB’s zonal unit office in south Mumbai in the afternoon, an official had said. DDG Sanjay Kumar Singh had said, “We have taken over some cases and will start our investigation into it.”
The team will probe the six cases, which have national and international ramifications, in order to conduct a deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages, the NCB had said on Friday.
Seeking to downplay his removal from the high-profile case, Wankhede had said that the move was in line with his demand for a central probe in the drug bust case. “I am still the Zonal Director of NCB Mumbai. A writ petition was filed by me in the high court for an independent probe by a central agency, and now a senior officer has been appointed. Cases in which I had problems have been handed over. The other cases are still with the NCB,” he had said.
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