Cordelia Drug bust bribery: CBI questions accused Sanville D'Souza

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The CBI questioned suspected middleman Sanville Adrian D'Souza for the second day in a case of alleged attempted extortion of Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan for bailing out his son Aryan in NCB's Cordelia drug bust case, officials said on Wednesday.

The CBI may arrest D'Souza if his responses are not found satisfactory or the investigating officer finds him evasive, they said.

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D'Souza arrived on Wednesday at the CBI headquarters where he was quizzed about his interactions on the night of October 2-3, 2021, alleged negotiations over payment of Rs 25 crore with the staff of the actor, details of the token amount of Rs 50 lakh allegedly extorted, among other matters, they said.

Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Contro Bureau (NCB) on October 3, 2021, a day after the NCB raid on the Cordelia cruise ship. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28, 2021, after spending 25 days in jail.

The NCB had also dropped charges against him and recommended a probe against the then NCB Mumbai Zone Director Sameer Wankhede.

It is alleged that K P Gosavi, who was taken as an independent witness by the NCB during the raid, was allowed to give the impression as if he was an NCB officer, they said.

Taking advantage of the situation, Gosavi in conspiracy with his old acquaintance D'Souza decided to extort Rs 25 crore from the actor by recording and sending a voice note of his son Aryan, who was under detention after the raid mentioning, that he was arrested by the NCB, they alleged.

The case was handed over to the CBI which had registered an FIR against five persons - Wankhede, Gosavi, D'Souza and two other officers of the NCB - in connection with the case.

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