NCP alleges that the NCB's raid on a cruise ship was fake

BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar reacts ...

Mumbai, Social Times. On Wednesday the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alleged that the NCB's raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 2 was fake , and no narcotic drugs were found during it. The party also questioned the presence of two persons along with the NCB team during the raid, and alleged that one of them was a BJP member. The BJP said in its reaction that had there been no evidence, the court would have granted bail to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan in the case. The Narcotics Control Bureau also termed the allegations as baseless. The NCB has so far arrested 17 people, including Aryan Khan, after allegedly seizing drugs from the Goa-bound ship on Saturday. The drama (the raid) was fake. They did not find drugs on the ship, NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik claimed. He also released a few videos, purportedly of the raid. A man named 'Gosavi' who is seen escorting Aryan Khan in one of the videos was not an NCB official, and his social media profile states that he is a private detective based in Kuala Lumpur, the NCP leader alleged. Further, two men are seen escorting Arbaaz Merchant, also arrested in the case, in another video, and one of them is a member of the BJP, Malik alleged. If these two men are not officials of the NCB, then why were they escorting two high-profile people ," he asked.

Reacting to Malik's allegations, local BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar said during lockdown, the Uddhav Thackeray-led state government was the first to open liquor shops, it also decided to lift prohibition in Chandrapur, and now Nawab Malik has accused the NCB of being a drug lord. Aryan Khan was represented by a senior criminal lawyer when he was produced in a court, Bhatkhalkar said.