Aryan Khan 'Selfie' Before Official Arrest, Foreign Trips Sponsored By Family: Sameer Wankhede Explains Lavish Life, Denies Extortion Allegations

In an elaborate rejoinder to quash the CBI’s bribery and extortion case against him, former NCB Zonal director Sameer Wankhede has justified Shah Rukh Khan’s son - Aryan Khan’s arrest, the selfie controversy, his own foreign trips and prized possessions.

Wankhede in turn accused the NCB’s Special Enquiry Team (SET), that took over the Cordelia Cruise Ship probe from him, of giving Aryan Khan a clean chit by “suppressing information of evidence.”

“The entire endeavor of the SET vide the impugned report was to create as many doubts regarding the investigation of the Cordelia cruise case in order to meet their ultimate motive of giving Aryan Khan a clean chit and be able to justify the same,” the rejoinder states.

The CBI case against Wankhede and five others under the Prevention of Corruption Act is for allegedly seeking a bribe of Rs 25 crore from family members of those arrested in the 2021 Cordelia Cruise Ship Case, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan.

Wankhede has approached the High Court to quash the FIR and filed the present rejoinder to contest allegations against him. In their reply to Wankhede’s plea CBI said the FIR was based on a complaint from the NCB.

On Thursday, a division bench headed by Justice AS Gadkari extended protection from arrest granted to Wankhede till June 23 after his counsel Aabad Ponda along with Karan Jain sought time to amend the petitioner further.

However, Wankhede accused the agency of malice in the rejoinder. “The SET has also challenged the judicial process by not filing an investigation report against Aryan Khan as mandated by the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) either in the body of a chargesheet or a closure report,” Wankhede claimed.

I-Note to Implicate Certain Accused in the Cordelia Cruise Ship Case

The CBI alleged that Wankhede modified the intelligence report based on which the raid was conducted to include Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Khan’s names. However, Wankhede said that he hadn’t tampered with the ‘I-note’ as it was submitted much before the raid teams were even formed on October 2, 2021. The SET was relying on a wrong i-note, he claimed.

Sefie Controversy

After Khan's arrest, his selfie with KP Gosavi, a panch witness in the Cordelia case went viral. CBI claims that the selfie was taken in NCB custody when Wankhede was the Zonal director and that Gosavi tried to extort Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan allegedly on behalf of Wankhede.

Wankhede has denied these allegations and claims that the selfie wasn’t taken in custody but before Khan’s official arrest.

Earlier Gosavi had claimed that he clicked that selfie to show to his friends and denied having received any financial benefit.

Foreign Visits to London, Portugal, Dubai Maldives, Flats and Rolex Watch

Wankhede claims that his father Dyandev Wankhede along with his son paid for his London trip, while his wife paid for their Portugal trip, another UK tour. He also mentioned bank details from which he paid for his Maldives and South Africa visits. Over Rs 15 lakh spent on foreign visits was accounted for, he claimed. Wankhede added that it was his second wife Kranti Redekar who had bought him his Rolex watch and also paid over Rs. 1.2 crore for one of his flats. He owns 4 flats in Mumbai.