Prabhakar Sail witness of drugs on cruise case questioned for 10 hours

Mumbai : Narcotics Control Bureau’s vigilance team lead by NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh questioned Prabhakar Sail, the sole witness in the Drugs on Cruise case, for recording his statement in the alleged payoff in the case. The questioning session was of nearly 10 hours.

Speaking to media personnel in Mumbai, NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh said, “Prabhakar Sail appeared before NCB’s vigilance team in Mumbai on Monday for questioning which started at 2 pm on November 8 and ended at 12:20 am on November 9. We will again start the questioning in the morning.”

He has been called by the anti-drugs agency again on Tuesday, the official said.

Earlier, after being summoned by the NCB on Sunday, Sail along with his lawyer reached the Central Reserve Police Force’s mess in suburban Bandra under police protection at 2 pm on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Singh had informed that the NCB vigilance team is inspecting several locations in connection with the drugs-on-cruise case.

NCB vigilance team, led by Gyaneshwar Singh had arrived in Mumbai on Monday morning.

Gyaneshwar Singh is heading the Special Enquiry Team (SET) which has been constituted to probe allegations against NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede in the drugs-on-cruise case.

Sail, who is the personal bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi and also a witness in the Mumbai cruise ship raid case, levelled allegations of corruption against Gosavi and NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.

In the affidavit, Sail claimed to have overheard a phone call between his employer Kiran P Gosavi — another witness in the cruise ship drug raid case — and Sam D’Souza. “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 stated.

Wankhede, the NCB Mumbai zonal director, had led the drug raid on the cruise ship, Cordelia, and subsequently arrested 20 persons in connection with the raid, including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan (23).

The vigilance team arrived in Mumbai on October 27 and has recorded the statement of eight persons, including Wankhede and investigating officer V.V Singh.

Wankhede was removed from the drug raid case on November 5, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of NCB Delhi led by Sanjay Singh took over the investigation of this case and five other cases.

The vigilance team led by Gyaneshwar Singh visited the cruise ship and Tardeo, the area where Sail reportedly collected two bags containing ₹50 lakh from Shah Rukh’s manager Pooja Dadlani, as per the allegations made in his affidavit. The team also verified the place in Lower Parel where Dadlani, Sam D’Souza and Gosavi reportedly met to discuss the purported exchange of money.

Wankhede has denied all allegations made in the affidavit as being baseless.

The vigilance probe team left for Delhi on October 30 after Sail failed to turn up for recording his statement before them. On October 28, the NCB wrote a letter to the Mumbai Police Commissioner requesting him to ask Sail, who had appeared before a Mumbai police SIT (formed on October 28to probe the allegations of corruption against Wankhede, Gosavi and others mentioned in Sail’s affidavit).

However, Sail did not appear before the NCB and the team left for Delhi on October 30. It returned to Mumbai on Monday and questioned Sail.

Gosavi was arrested by Pune city police in a cheating case registered in 2018 and currently in custody of Pune police.