The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has claimed that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) initially detained 11 persons when it allegedly busted a rave party on a cruise liner last week, but let off three persons who have connections with a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. Three people were let off, one of them being Rishabh Sachdeva, the brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bhartiya.
He also claimed that the other two were Pratik Gabba and Aamir Furniturewala who tagged along Aryan Khan to the party and were released after two hours of detention. Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan had been arrested by the NCB on January 13 this year in an alleged drugs case. He got bail in September.
Bharatiya declined to immediately comment on the NCP’s allegation, but his office said he would hold a press conference later in the day.
“The names of Pratik and Aamir figured in the ongoing hearings in the court,” Malik said.
Malik had announced that he would be publicly stating the name of the BJP leader whose closed one was let off by the NCB in the Aryan Khan drug case. Based on a tip-off an NCB team led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede had raided the Cordelia cruise and claimed to have recovered contrabands. The NCP leader demanded that the call records of these three persons along with that of Wankhede be examined.
“Rishabh Sachdeva’s father and uncle came to the NCB office and telephonic conversations happened between Wankhede and the BJP leaders in Mumbai and Delhi from the phone of Sachdeva’s father,” Malik claimed.
“Why were the phones of these three persons not seized?” he asked.
According to Malik, the Mumbai police were also kept in the loop about the 11 persons who were detained from the cruise ship.He also alleged the raid to be “fake, planned and conspired to defame the film industry and the Maharashtra government”.
“Selective people have been arrested…The matter is serious. CCTV footage should be taken and a detailed inquiry should be conducted,” the minority affairs minister alleged.
“The BJP says that I am attacking the NCB since my son-in-law was arrested by the agency. I have never supported my son-in-law and he will fight his case. How can I give information I have in this case to the NCB which has framed a false case. If an independent commission is set up to conduct a probe, I will do so.” Malik said.
