Clicked Selfie With Aryan Khan To Show To Friends; Not Received Any Financial Benefit In Cruise Ship Drug Case: KP Gosavi To NCB

"I want to say that Aryan Khan was searched but no drug was found from him. However, drug chats were found in his phone. I thought Aryan Khan being a celebrity and no drug was found from him, he was made to sit separately to avoid a crowd gathering around him. I took one selfie with him to show it to my friends," reads Gosavi's statement attached to the charge sheet filed by the Narcotics Control Bureau's SIT last week.

In the statement recorded at Pune's Yerawada Central Prison on April 1 and 2, 2022, the concerned officer also asked him about a video which had surfaced after Prabhakar Sail, another witness in the case, had made allegations of crores of rupees exchanging hands with respect to Aryan Khan. In this video, Gosavi is seen sitting next to Aryan Khan on a bench and holding a phone close to Aryan's face.

Explaining this, Gosavi says, "I don't want to say anything on this because I have already been crucified because of this video, everywhere. It was just a normal call from my friend who just wanted to hear Aryan Khan's voice."

On the allegations levelled by Sail about him (Sail) being asked to sign on 10 blank paper sheets to become a panch witness to the recovery of contraband from Arbaaz Merchant, Gosavi has called Sail's allegations as false.

According to Gosavi, Sail was present during the search and seizure of drugs recovery and had signed the panchnama "then & there along with others." He, however, was not carrying any identity proof therefore one of the NCB officers asked him to send it on his WhatsApp, Gosavi said.

When asked for an explanation as to why would Sail say whatever he did, Gosavi said he had no idea why Sail was defaming him. He added, "I guess he has been influenced and manipulated by some political leaders and I have heard that he has been offered a huge amount of money and a flat in Mumbai."

When asked if he had received any financial benefit after this case from anyone including NCB, Gosavi denied having received any financial benefit. He, however, added, "I was promised that if the quantity of drugs is caught I would be rewarded handsomely but so far I have not received any reward."

He was also asked if anyone including any officer of NCB asked him to seek favours from any of the accused family. Gosavi replied in the negative and said that he had not sought any favour from anyone connected to the case in any manner.

Prabhakar Sail passed away about 2 months back supposedly due to a heart attack. His statement was recorded by the NCB SIT as well.

Gosavi also told the NCB SIT that this was his first ever case with NCB Mumbai and he had never known any NCB Mumbai officer before this.

On being asked about his monthly income, Gosavi said that he ran an import export business where, after paying for salaries of his employees and other things, he would earn around Rs 70,000-80,000 per month.

Though, even with that kind of income, he had hired Sail on a monthly pay of Rs 15,000 as a personal bodyguard at a friend's request as Sail was jobless and had also hired a vehicle from another known person since over 3 months. It was one such vehicle which Gosavi had hired which was used by the NCB team on October 2, 2021 to carry an accused from the cruise terminal to the NCB Office. Gosavi said that the NCB had detained too many people that night and were short of vehicles.

He told the NCB SIT that he needed a personal security guard as "it was very common for businessmen involved in import export business to get threats & attacks in the port area." He added that he was also associated with a Delhi-based NGO which was involved in stopping by reporting all kind of petty crimes like gambling, drug peddling/consumption etc and that he has also been "actively participating in opposing & stopping cow slaughter" and a few people known to him had been attacked for opposing cow slaughter. He claims to have been involved in registration of a few cases of cow slaughter and drug peddling around Mumbai and Thane.

The NCB SIT, in its charge sheet last week, gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, Avin Sahu, Gopal Anand, Samir Sehgal, Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal.

Of the 20 accused, 14 continue to remain charged with offences under various sections of the NDPS Act, 1985. Their names are: Aryan's friend Arbaaz Merchant (26), one Munmun Dhamecha (28), guests Vikrant Chhokar (33), Mohak Jaiswal (28), Ishmeet Singh Chadha (33), Gomit Chopra (28), Nupur Satija (29), alleged supplier Abdul Kadar Shaikh (30), one Shreyas Nair (23), guest Manish Rajgariya (30), alleged consumer connected with Khan- Aachit Kumar (22), suppliers Chinedu Igwe (27), Shivraj Harijan (33) and Okoro Uzeoma (40).

"SIT carried out its investigation in objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest 6 persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence," the NCB said in its press note.

"All the accused persons were found in possession of Narcotics except Aryan and Mohak", the press statement said.

On October 3, 2021, the NCB arrested Aryan Khan along with several others following an alleged drug bust where the Cordelia Cruise Ship was docked. While nothing was recovered from Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant was allegedly found in possession of 6 gms of charas. Another 5gms of hashish was reportedly retrieved from one Munmun Dhamecha.

They were booked under Sections 8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Subsequently, other guests on the ship as well as alleged drug peddlers were arrested in the case.