Sameer Wankhede part of Aryan Khan 'kidnapping plot', claims Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik

Maharashtra minister and national spokesperson of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Nawab Malik on Sunday accused the NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Unit director Sameer Wankhede of being part of a plot to "kidnap" actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan for ransom. In his latest allegation against Wankhede, Malik claimed BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya to be the "mastermind" of the plot.

He further claimed that Wankhede had met Bharatiya at a graveyard in suburban Oshiwara. "But, because of his (Wankhede) good luck, we couldn't get the footage since the police's CCTV was not functioning. Hence, out of fear, Wankhede had lodged a false complaint that he was being stalked," Malik said.

He also reiterated that there was a conspiracy hatched by a group of people to lure people like Aryan Khan onboard the ship and subsequently frame them in the drug case. “Aryan Khan didn’t purchase the ticket for the cruise party…It’s a matter of kidnapping and ransom,” the Maharashtra Minister said, according to ANI. "The alleged cruise rave party was a plot to kidnap Aryan Khan for ransom, of which Mohit Bharatiya was the mastermind," the NCP leader alleged.

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan was arrested last month following a raid led by Sameer Wankhede on a cruise ship from which drugs were allegedly seized. On Friday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), including the alleged Cordelia drug bust case in which Aryan Khan was arrested, transferred six cases from Wankhede to a Special Investigation Team comprising officers from the operations branch at the NCB headquarters in New Delhi.

Nawab Malik has repeatedly termed the cruise drugs raid as "fake" and levelled a series of allegations against Wankhede. However, Wankhede has denied these allegations and said that Malik was targeting him since he had earlier arrested the minister’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in a narcotics case.

• Sameer Wankhede