WhatsApp chat of SRK and Sameer Wankhede surfaces

The WhatsApp chats are part of the petition filed by Sameer Wankhede

Days after he was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly seeking a bribe of Rs 25 crore vis-a-vis the Cordelia drugs-on-cruise bust case involving Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, high-profile Indian Revenue Service officer Sameer Wankhede submitted WhatsApp chats in the Bombay High Court suggesting him to go slow on his son.

A vacation bench comprising of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh and Justice Arif Doctor has directed the CBI not to take any coercive action against Wankhede.

The WhatsApp chats are part of the petition filed by Wankhede.

However, the content of the chats could not be checked immediately.

Also Read | Sameer Wankhede moves HC seeking quashing of CBI FIR against him

There are no immediate statements from Khan or his office on the issue.

During the hearing, the high court directed Wankhede to cooperate with the investigations and appear before the CBI office to record his statements, to which he agreed.

While Wankhede was represented by counsel Rizwan Merchant, the CBI was represented by counsel Kuldeep Patil.

On his part, Patil opposed Wankhede’s plea and said he should seek anticipatory bail.

NCP leader Nawab Malik, who was then a minister in the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government, had carried out a series of exposes on Wankhede and people close to him.

Wankhede, an officer of the 2008-batch IRS officer had faced several allegations.

A total of 20 persons were arrested during the 2-3 October, 2021 midnight raid and subsequent investigations. The NCB had seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas and 22 MDMA/Ecstasy pills during the raid on the Cordelia cruise from Mumbai to Goa.

The Bombay High Court, on 28 October, 2021, while giving bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmum Dhamecha, had observed: “There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful acts.”

In May 2022, Aryan Khan was given a clean chit by the NCB saying that the evidence was “insufficient”.

After this, the NCB also carried out an internal probe into the issue vis-a-vis the allegations against Wankhede.

It may be mentioned, besides Wankhede, others booked were the then NCB-Mumbai's Superintendent, Ashish Ranjan, then NCB-Mumbai's Intelligence Officer, two private persons KP Gosavi and Sanvile D'Souza among others.