A man believed to be the missing link in an alleged payoff to secure Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan's release in the drugs-on-cruise case has surfaced with new claims. Sam D'Souza was a name that came up in allegations that Kiran Gosavi, whose selfie with Aryan Khan went viral, had tried to extract Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani to help free him from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)'s custody.
Prabhakar Sail, an NCB witness who had given details of the alleged deal, had said that Sam D'Souza brought Kiran Gosavi and Pooja Dadlani face-to-face. Mr Sail has claimed that Gosavi planned to ask for Rs 25 crore from Pooja Dadlani and settle on 18 crore, of which eight crore was to be paid to NCB officer Sameer Wankhede.
In an interview to NDTV, Sam D'Souza, who calls himself a liaison man, said he had been in Delhi all this while and he would soon record a statement with the Special Investigation Team that has taken over the case from Sameer Wankhede.
Mr D'Souza said he never knew about a Rs 25-crore deal and that he was only meant to set up the meeting between Gosavi and SRK's manager. According to him, Gosavi contacted him a day before the drugs raid -- on October 1 -- through Sunil Patil, a "power broker" with important connections.
"I met Gosavi and I asked him what he wanted. He told me Aryan Khan had been arrested and he wanted to speak to SRK's manager. I said I don't have her contact, I will try. I couldn't get her number," Mr D'Souza told NDTV, referring to a conversation on October 3, hours after Aryan Khan and others were detained following a drugs raid on a cruise ship.
"Gosavi came again and told me no drugs had been found on Aryan Khan and we can help him. Then I somehow got (Pooja Dadlani's) number and got them to talk. I was present at the face-to-face meeting between Gosavi and Pooja Dadlani. Gosavi claimed he was an investigating officer. I did not know him so I believed him and called him 'sir'. Gosavi said a lot of things that were not true. He had even saved his bodyguard Prabhakar Sail's number as Sameer Wankhede (SW 2) to mislead us. He had an NCB sticker on his car as well. They tried to impersonate him," Mr D'Souza said.
Later that day, Aryan Khan was arrested.
"We were shocked when Sunil Patil told me Gosavi had taken Rs 50 lakh from Pooja Dadlani. Then Gosavi's selfie with Aryan became viral. Gosavi and Sunil Patil turned out to be frauds. Sunil Patil told me to collect the money. We recovered that money for Pooja Dadlani," he said.
Sam D'Souza has alleged a threat to his life and has asked for police protection from the Maharashtra government. "Sunil Patil, Gosavi, Prabhakar Sail…they are all frauds. The real story will now come out. The truth will prevail," he said.
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