NCB's Panch Witness in Aryan Khan Arrest Was Used in Five Cases Since 2020, Agency Says 'No Option'

As Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan got bail on Thursday, questions have been raised regarding the panch witnesses cited by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in its Cordelia ship raid case.

Of the 10 panch witnesses cited by NCB in the case, for which Aryan Khan was arrested, the name of Adil Fazal Usmani has been used by the agency in at least five cases since 2020, a report in The Indian Express said.

Earlier, questions were also raised regarding two other witnesses- KP Gosavi, a wanted accused who is now under arrest, and Manish Bhanushali, who has alleged links to the BJP.

Independent Witness Prabhakar Sail had accused NCB Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede of making him sign blank pages. Sail had claimed that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D’Souza over the phone — after Aryan was taken to the NCB office on October 2 — 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 who supervised the raid on the cruise ship.

The report quoted NCB officials as saying that they have to fall back on known panchs as it is ‘practically difficult’ to get persons willing to come on board during drug raids, out of fear and to avoid legal entanglements.

However, courts have often taken a dim view of habitual panchs, saying they are ‘under the thumb of police’ and hence could not be considered independent witnesses, the report added.

Apart from Usmani, Gosavi, Bhanushali and Sail, the NCB had also listed Aubrey Gomez, V Waigankar, Aparna Rane, Prakash Bahadur, Shoaib Faiz and Muzammil Ibrahim as panch witnesses in the case. Some of these are security staff of the luxury liner.

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The report added that Usmani, a Jogeshwari resident, was cited by the NCB as a panch witness in five other cases- 36/2020 (seizure of commercial quantity of LSD); 38/2020 (seizure of non-commercial quantity of mephedrone or MD, and commercial quantity of LSD); 27/2021 (seizure of commercial quantity of MD); 35/2021 (seizure of commercial quantity of LSD and ganja); and 38/2021 (seizure of LSD and ganja).

However, the scribe of the report could not locate Usmani on his address given in all the five cases.

Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, who had levelled several accusations against NCB, was the first to point out Gosavi’s criminal record and Bhanushali’s BJP links. Malik had claimed that an anonymous letter was sent to him by an NCB official with allegations against Wankhede and referred to a ‘drug peddler’, Adil Usmani. “The letter alleges that the NCB sourced 60 gram MD from him, allegedly to plant it in case 24/2021 (seizure of MD, MDMA/ecstasy tablets and charas),” the report said.

The Sessions Court or police records do not show any past criminal record of the Usmani named in the NCB panchnamas. However, NCB Dy DG Gyaneshwar Singh and Wankhede have refuted Malik’s allegations and the claim that they knew the witnesses.

The report also said the NCB has used at least four panch witnesses multiple times. Shehbaz Mansuri, one of the witnesses, has been a panch witness in four cases.

Fletcher Patel, whose name was also mentioned by Malik, is a panch witness in multiple NCB cases registered in the past year. Following Malik’s allegations, Patel, however, said that he was an Army veteran who was only too glad to help government agencies and he had met Wankhede at a function a few years back.

Sayyad Zubair Ahmed and Abdul Rehman Ibrahim have been cited as panch witnesses by the NCB in two cases each this year, the report said.

NCB officials said there was nothing unusual as the agency keeps falling back on known people as panch witnesses since people are apprehensive about getting involved, and many are even frightened to accompany a drug raid. They added that NCB raids happen late at night or on weekends when it is difficult to get witnesses.

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