Rs 25 crore demanded from SRK, CBI's extortion case against officials

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was extorted and threatened that his son Aryan would be framed in a narcotics case unless he paid Rs 25 crore. As per the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Independent witness KP Gosavi, whose selfie with Aryan Khan went viral, tried to extort Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan allegedly on behalf of the then NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede who has been named as accused number one in the CBI’s FIR. The CBI ha named Wankhede, a 2008 batch IRS officer, V.V Singh, Superintendent with NCB, and Ashish Ranjan, the then investigative officer in the Aryan Khan drugs case as accused in the case along with KP Gosavi and his associate D’Souza.

Wankhede, who hit headlines after the arrest of Aryan Khan and others in an alleged drug bust on a cruise ship off Mumbai in October 2021, is facing allegations of corruption and criminal misconduct. In its FIR, the CBI has flagged the officer's foreign trips and sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches. Wankhede has "not properly explained his foreign visits and had apparently mis-declared the expenditure on his foreign travels", it adds. KP Gosavi is the witness in the drugs-on-cruise case whose selfie with Aryan Khan following his arrest, sparking questions on how an individual not employed with NCB was allowed access to the accused.

The FIR flags a conspiracy "to extort a sum of Rs 25 crore from the family members of the alleged 'accused' Aryan Khan by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of Narcotics substances". "This amount was finally settled for Rs 18 crore. A token amount of Rs 50 lakhs as bribe money was also taken by KP Gosavi and his aide Sanville D'Souza but later a part of this amount of Rs 50 lakhs bribe money was returned back by them," the FIR says. The internal enquires by NCB have revealed allegations of criminal misconduct and corrupt practices of Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan independently, which could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income. The case was registered against Wankhede, following a preliminary inquiry by the CBI on the basis of a vigilance report of NCB. During the viligance inquiry, it was found that Sameer Wankhede amassed assets through corruption.