Drugs-on-cruise case witness dies of heart attack

|HT|

In the drugs case linked to Aryan Khan, Shah Rukh Khan's son, a witness of the probe agency Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Prabhakar Sail, died on Friday. Sail, 36, died of a heart attack at his home, according to his lawyer. Prabhakar Sail was said to be a key witness in the case based on a conversation he reportedly overheard, according to which a payoff of Rs. 25 crore was discussed. Of the total alleged payoff amount, Rs. 8 crore was meant for Sameer Wankhede, the officer who was earlier leading the probe by the NCB, as per the claims.

Wankhede had denied all allegations against him amid a political row; he was later transferred.

Sail was the bodyguard of KP Gosavi - another NCB witness in the drugs-on-cruise case - whose selfie with Aryan Khan had gone viral after a Goa-bound cruise ship was busted.

His employer Kiran P Gosavi had a conversation with one Sam D’Souza, Sail had claimed in his affidavit. “You put a bomb of 25 crores and let’s settle at 18 final, because we have to give 8 crores to Sameer Wankhede,” Gosavi told a certain person named Sam D’Souza," the affidavit read. Sail also claimed that Gosavi met Khan’s lawyer, Pooja Dadlani, and purportedly struck a deal of taking Rs. 50 lakh in exchange for Aryan’s release. The explosive claims had prompted Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik to question the NCB investigation.

Aryan Khan had got bail in the high-profile drugs case last year in October after spending several weeks in jail. Earlier this week, a special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court gave an extension of 60 days to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB for filing a charge-sheet in the case.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)