Mumbai : Prabhakar Sail, who is bodyguard to the witness in drug bust case, K P Gosavi, was given police protection by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, a day after he filed an affidavit levelling serious allegations, including a payoff to NCB zonal chief Sameer Wankhede, in the cruise liner drug raid that led to the arrest of actor Shah Rukh Khanâs son Aryan.
In another development, Gosavi, who had gone into hiding since NCP minister Nawab Malik said he had criminal cases registered against him, surfaced on Monday and denied all allegations, including those of extortion.
Gosavi was quoted by ANI as saying he would surrender âin half an hour outside Maharashtraâ. He also denied meeting Shah Rukhâs manager Pooja Dadlaniâone of the claims made by Sail.
State Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said that they have gone through Prabhakar’s affidavit, in which he levelled allegations against NCB. He shared this news on Monday.
“He has said he fears for his life. We have given him police protection as his wish.” On Monday, Sail visited the Mumbai police headquarters to lodge a complaint. Sources said he was asked to approach Sahar police station, under whose jurisdiction he stays. Sahar police said they are looking into the complaint.
KP Gosavi, for his part, clarified that the selfie with Aryan Khan that had gone viral after the October 2 raid was taken on the cruise terminal and not at the NCB office. He said he had received information about the drugs racket from a source and had informed the NCB. He said there was a threat to his life.
Gosavi, who claims to run a private detective agency, is one of nine independent witnesses. There are offences of cheating registered against him in Thane and Pune police recently issued a lookout circular against him in connection with a 2018 cheating case In an interview to electronic media. Gosavi said he was very much available in Mumbai till October 6, but as he started getting threat calls from unknown numbers, he had to go into hiding.
Recalling the sequence of events of the NCB raid, he said that as he got information on the drugs, he passed it on to NCB officials, and when he went to the cruise, he first met NCB superintendent VV Singh and later met Wankhede. Until then he did not know about Wankhede, he said. In the early hours of October 3, Sail claimed that while escorting Gosavi, he overheard him discussing a demand of Rs 25 crore and his willingness to “settle” at Rs18 crore, of which Rs 8 crore was to be allegedly paid to Wankhede.
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