Mohit Kamboj asked if Maharashtra ministers were sheltering a drug syndicate.
A "fake narrative" is being created around the drugs-on-cruise case involving Superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, BJP Mumbai leader Mohit Kamboj has alleged. He has suggested that some Maharashtra ministers might be trying to extort money from Mr Khan and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has links to the high profile drugs case. NCP leader Nawab Malik has called the allegations an "unsuccessful attempt to misguide and divert the attention from the truth". He further said he will "reveal the truth" on Sunday.
Mr Kamboj claimed a man named Sunil Patil, who he says is an NCP leader close to former state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, is the mastermind behind the "conspiracy" in the case.
"Sunil Patil sent a WhatsApp message to Sam D'Souza on October 1 and told him that he had leads on 27 people who were going to consume illegal drugs at a cruise party, and asked Mr Patil to get him in touch with someone from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Mr D'Souza then spoke to officer V.V Singh from the anti-drugs agency and informed him about the sale and consumption of drugs in the cruise party," he said. He also alleged that Mr Patil asked Mr D'Souza to get a person named Kiran Gosavi to coordinate with the NCB for action in the case.
Sam D'Souza's name features in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Aryan Khan and several others were arrested, and spent over three weeks in prison before getting bail. Mr D'Souza had claimed in a plea that Kiran Gosavi, a witness of the anti-drugs agency in the case whose selfie with Aryan Khan had gone viral, had taken Rs 50 lakh from Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani to get Aryan released.
Using the purported WhatsApp messages as proof, the BJP leader has claimed that Mr Gosavi is linked to Sunil Patil, and hence NCP ministers who Mr Patil is supposedly close to might also be guilty of hatching a conspiracy to extort money from Mr Khan and falsely implicate BJP in the case.
Mr Kamboj shared an audio call from Mr Patil and asked if Maharashtra ministers were sheltering a drug syndicate in the state. In the audio clip, Mr Patil claims he is close to the Home Minister of the state. NDTV cannot independently verify the authenticity of the clip.
The BJP leader also claimed that Sunil Patil had a suite at the Lalit hotel in Mumbai for many months where NCP leaders partied with him. He said that Hrishikesh Deshmukh, son of former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, was with Mr Patil at the hotel for a year.
Mr Kamboj shared pictures of what he calls a "secret meeting" showing one Chinku Pathan at the state government guest house and with former Home Minister Mr Deshmukh. Mr Pathan, an alleged henchman of Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested by the NCB in January this year with illegal drugs and arms. The BJP leader claimed that the son-in-law of another NCP Minister was also present at this meeting.
He demanded that NCP clarify its relations relation with Sunil Patil and drug peddlers. He specifically named Nawab Malik and asked what Mr Malik was doing at Lalit hotel with Mr Patil.
Mr Kamboj has said there's a threat to his life after his press conference on Saturday.
Mr Malik has called the BJP leader "a member of Sameer Dawood Wankhede's private army" and said one of the two Special investigative Teams (S.I.T) constituted to probe the case will expose the truth. Sameer Wankhede is the NCB officer who was investigating the case. Mr Malik had alleged that Mr Wankhede was born a Muslim, but he forged documents, including a caste certificate, to pass off as a Scheduled Caste (SC) person to get recruitment under quota after clearing the UPSC exams.
"I had demanded an S.I.T probe to investigate Sameer Dawood Wankhede for kidnapping of & ransom demand from Aryan Khan. Now 2 S.I.Ts are constituted (state & centre), let us see who brings out the skeletons from the closet of Wankhede and exposes him and his nefarious private army," he tweeted.