Kiran Gosavi, NCB witness in Aryan Khan case arrested in Pune
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Aryan Khan with KP Gosavi.
New Delhi: Kiran Gosavi, the Narcotics Control Bureau's witness in the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case, was detained on Thursday, 28 October, Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta told news agency ANI.
The arrest comes three days after he claimed he would surrender at a police station in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow.
Kiran Gosavi who was absconding after the Pune police issued a lookout circular against him in connection with a 2018 cheating case, had said he wanted to surrender to the Uttar Pradesh Police as he felt "threatened" in Maharashtra.
However, the Lucknow Police later refuted the claims of Mr Gosavi trying to surrender to them.
A private investigator, Mr Gosavi was present during the cruise ship raid earlier this month and later at the Narcotics Control Bureau or NCB office with Aryan Khan. His selfie and videos with Aryan Khan at both places indicated that he had unlimited access to the son of Shah Rukh Khan.
It fuelled questions from Maharashtra's ruling alliance about the anti-drugs agency's investigation. Several leaders had questioned why an "independent witness" of the agency should be present at the raid and its office and take selfies with the high-profile accused.
On Sunday last, a man claiming to be Mr Gosavi's personal bodyguard made allegations of bribery against him.
Prabhakar Sail, who is another witness in the case, said he heard Mr Gosavi having a telephonic conversation about payoffs with one Sam D'Souza. Mr Sail claimed he heard Mr Gosavi say they should ask for a "bomb Rs 25 crore" and then settle at Rs 18 crore, of which Rs 8 crore is for the NCB's zonal officer in charge of the investigation, Sameer Wankhede.
Mr Gosavi had told NDTV that he has no knowledge about this. "I'm hearing this for the first time," he said, adding that he had not met Mr Wankhede before October 2.
"Prabhakar Sail is lying. All I want to request is his CDR report must be released. My CDR report or chats can be released, Prabhakar Sail and his brother's CDR reports, as well as chats, should be released, everything will be clear," Gosavi said before being detained, according to an ANI report.