Aryan Khan Bribery Case: Sam D'Souza's Writ Petition Withdrawn After Bombay High Court Denies Him Interim Protection

Sam D'Souza, accused in Rs 25 Crore extortion case regarding Aryan Khan's arrest in 2021, withdrew his quashing petition after the Bombay High Court expressed disinclination to grant him interim protection from arrest.

A vacation bench of Justice Abhay Ahuja allowed D’Souza to withdraw his petition while keeping all his contentions open.

D'Souza can seek anticipatory bail before the Sessions Court.

CBI has alleged that D'Souza, as the aide of one KP Gosavi, took a bribe of Rs. 50 Lakhs along with Gosavi but later returned part of the amount. Gosavi was taken as an independent witness to the Narcotics Control Bureau's raid on the Cordelia Cruise in 2021.

According to the CBI's FIR, Gosavi and D'Souza along with Sameer Wankhede, Vishwa Vijay Singh (then NCB Superintendent), and Ashish Ranjan (then Intelligence Officer of NCB, Mumbai Zonal Unit) conspired to extort Rs. 25 Crores from Aryan Khan. This was later settled at Rs. 18 Crores and the Rs. 50 Lakhs taken by Gosavi and D'Souza was a token amount for the same, according to the FIR.

Advocate Sandeep Karnik argued that the main accused in the case, former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede, has been granted protection from coercive action and sought the same protection on the basis of parity. Karnik said that there is nothing against D’Souza in the FIR except that he was aiding KP Gosavi.

Advocate Kuldeep Patil for the CBI opposed the plea for interim relief on the ground that D'Souza has not filed for anticipatory bail. Patil submitted that Wankhede’s case is on a different footing as he is a public servant and he raised a contention that there was no sanction to prosecute him under section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, However, D'Souza is a private citizen and the accusations of extortion against him are very serious, Patil argued.

The court said that Wankhede and D’Souza are not similarly placed and no parity can be granted. D’Souza’s liberty is not at stake as there is no arrest warrant against him, the court said.

After the court expressed disinclination to grant interim protection to D’Souza, Karnik sought protection for one or two days so that D’Souza can withdraw the petition and seek anticipatory bail before the Sessions Court.

However, the court did not grant any protection from coercive action to D’Souza.

Background

Sameer Wankhede, as former head of the NCB Zonal Unit, led raids where the Cordelia Cruise Ship was docked on October 2, 2021.

In the raid, the NCB claimed to have seized 13 gm of cocaine, 5 gm of mephedrone, 21 gm of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA and Rs 1.33 lakh cash in the raid, and arrested 17 people, including Aryan Khan. However, following allegations of bribery and extortion, the case was transferred to a Special Investigations Team of the NCB.

The SIT gave a clean chit to Khan and five others last year. Panch witness Prakhakar Sail who detailed the alleged extortion in an affidavit died of a cardiac arrest in April last year.

The Bombay High Court said in its order granting bail to Khan and the other two on October 28, 2021, that prima facie there was no evidence on record to infer that Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant conspired to commit offences under the NDPS Act.

Case no. – WP(ST)/9796/2023 [Criminal]

Case Title – Sanville Adrian Dsouza Alias Sam Dsouza v. Union Of India and Ors.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Bom) 263