Kiran Gosavi (Credit: Agency photo)
A man has come forward to shed light on the controversy surrounding the Narcotics Control Bureau witness Kiran Gosavi who allegedly took money from Shah Rukh Khan's aide to help free his son Aryan Khan from the clutches of the NCB after the high-profile Cordelia Cruise ship drugs bust. Sam D'Souza claimed he was the middleman in the deal between Gosavi and Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan's manager, and that he forced Gosavi to return the money once he realised that Gosavi was untrustworthy.
Speaking to TV channel, ABP Majha on Monday, D'Souza said NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede had no role in the alleged deal, and Gosavi had only pretended to be in touch with him. In fact, Gosavi had saved someone else's number as Wankhede's in order to fool him, D'Souza claimed. 50 lakh rupees was supposedly paid to Gosavi as part of the deal.
D'Souza's name cropped up last month when Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the alleged drugs case who claimed to have been employed as a bodyguard by Gosavi, alleged that he heard Gosavi speaking on the phone with D'Souza, asking him to strike a deal with Dadlani for Rs 25 crore, of which 8 crore would be given to Wankhede, the Indian Express reported.
According to D'Souza, it was he who introduced Gosavi to a 'power broker' by the name of Sunil Patil who had called him on October 1 regarding some crucial information about a part that would take place on the Cordelia cruise ship the next day. He was a regular informant who passed on information to the NCB whenever he could, D'Souza said in the interview, denying that he was directly involved in drug peddling.
Kiran Gosavi was arrested last week on long-pending charges of cheating for which he had been evading the police for quite some time. In addition to the story given to the media, D'Souza also said that Gosavi had promised to 'help' Aryan and had even taken a call from him. NCB officer Sameer Wankhede has also come under a barrage of allegations claiming that he was involved in blackmailing celebrities for money using the power and influence of the NCB.