NCB sources said that Jani’s name first appeared in the case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
In a twist in the Mumbai drug bust case, a video was shared on Sunday by an ‘independent witness’ in the cruise drugs case that purportedly shows absconding witness KP Gosavi recording an audio of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, at the NCB office in Mumbai.
Prabhakar Sail (40), a driver of absconding alleged private investigator KP Gosavi, whose selfie with Aryan Khan went viral, claimed that he is a personal bodyguard to Gosavi. In a purported video, Prabhakar claimed that his signatures were taken on blank papers by the NCB officials. “There was discussion of a bribe to Sameer Wankhede…I collected Rs 50 lakh in cash,” Prabhakar said in Marathi. Sail, an ‘independent witness’, shared the video to media persons.
However, the presence of Kunal Jani in the video has raised eyebrows in the case. Jani was earlier arrested in a separate drugs case and was also briefly seen in the video present at the NCB office. Jani is the director of a prominent restaurant in Mumbai’s Bandra.
The video has triggered speculations that Jani had some connection in the raid conducted by the anti-drugs agency on the cruise ship earlier this month that led to the alleged seizure of drugs and arrest of Aryan Khan and others.
However, NCB sources told news agency PTI that Jani was arrested by the agency in a separate drugs case and he was present at its office when Aryan Khan was brought there as his (Jani’s) statement was also being recorded.
Jani was arrested by the NCB on September 30 in connection with a drug case wherein Agisilaos Demetriades, brother of actor Arjun Rampal’s partner, is also an accused. Demetriades was accused of running a drug syndicate. Jani got out on bail on October 10.
A look at Jani’s previous track record suggests his associations in a string of cases involving celebrities.
NCB sources said that Jani’s name first appeared in the case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The Enforcement Directorate officials had found a group chat of Jani and Rhea Chakraborty where drugs were being discussed. The agency had alleged that though no drugs were found in Jani’s possession, he acted as a mediator for drug peddlers and clients and his name had cropped during questioning of those arrested following the death of Rajput.
Jani’s name also appeared in the Actor Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra’s case where Kundra was a partner in Jani’s hotel. Kundra is an accused in a pornographic films case, who got out on bail last month. he was also arrested earlier after his name popped up in a money laundering case involving Iqbal Mirchi, which was investigated by the ED.
Jani’s name emerged after the Mumbai drug bust case took a turn on Sunday after Prabhakar Sail claimed that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an official of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and other persons, including Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan, arrested in the case.
Sail told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D’Souza over the phone after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office after the October 3 raid about a demand of Rs 25 crore and “to settle at Rs 18 crore as they have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede”, the zonal director of the NCB. However, the NCB has denied the allegations.
