Mumbai: The Pune Police Thursday arrested Kiran Gosavi, a key witness in Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) alleged drug bust case involving Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan. Gosavi was absconding in a cheating case registered two years ago.
Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta told reporters that Gosavi was arrested from a lodge near Pune Thursday morning after an intense 10-day search by the police teams.
Gupta further said the arrest is not motivated by political reasons and debunked claims that it was part of a Centre versus state battle since NCB is a central agency.
“If we had not arrested him, questions would have been raised about why we are not acting despite information about him having come forward, his photograph being identified by the complainant and so on.”
“In the past 10 days, we got the locations of all the places he visited. He was roaming around various places such as Lucknow, Hyderabad, Fatehpur, Jalgaon, Mumbai, Panvel, Lonavala. He was going by the alias Sachin Patil,” Gupta said, adding Gosavi will be produced before the court Thursday afternoon.
Gosavi was incommunicado after the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Nawab Malik on 6 October raised questions about his association with the NCB and why he was seen escorting Aryan Khan to the NCB office in Ballard Pier. Gosavi’s selfie with Aryan Khan supposedly taken on 2 October, the day of the alleged drug bust on the Goa-bound cruiseliner, had gone viral.
On 13 October, the Pune Police issued a lookout notice for Gosavi to ensure that he does not leave the country.
Meanwhile, on 24 October, another witness from the Aryan Khan case, Prabhakar Sail, went public with a notorised affidavit and a video statement to claim that he was Gosavi’s bodyguard and was made to sign blank papers as a panch witness. He also spoke about Gosavi and one Sam D’Souza demanding a payoff worth Rs 25 crore. Before his arrest, Gosavi released a video statement refuting Sail’s allegations.
The NCB has started a vigilance probe to probe the allegations in Sail’s letter, while the Mumbai Police has started a probe based on Sail’s statement and similar complaints by three others.
Gupta said, “If some investigation is pending here that will be completed. If a new complaint against him comes up we will investigate that. If any other agency wants his custody from the Maharashtra Police, they have the right to seek a remand. If a request is made we will discuss it with the DG and coordinate at the state level.”
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Case for which Pune Police arrested Gosavi
The case for which Gosavi was arrested was registered in May 2018 at Pune’s Faraskhana Police station. A Pune resident Chinmay Deshmukh filed the case against Gosavi and his company, KPG Dreamz Solutions, for an alleged fraud of Rs 3.09 lakh. Deshmukh said Gosavi and his company cheated the 22-year-old with promises of a job abroad.
Last week, the Pune Police arrested one Sherbano Qureshi, said to be Gosavi’s assistant in the company that allegedly duped Deshmukh.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police and Thane Police named Gosavi as an accused in cases of cheating dating back to 2007, 2015 and 2016.
Pune Police sources said Deshmukh came forward and identified Gosavi’s photo after he saw the latter’s selfie with Aryan Khan.
Gosavi’s Facebook profile, which is now locked, states he was a private detective at Sleuths India Detectives and later with another firm, KP International World Class Services.
Gupta said, as per preliminary information, Gosavi was also dabbling in an import-export business.
Gosavi urges politicians to help him as ‘Marathi manus’
Before his arrest, Gosavi recorded a video statement, which ThePrint has seen, denying all allegations made by his bodyguard Sail.
“I will only request media to access mobile chats and CDR reports of Prabhakar and his two brothers. Look at my chats and calls with Sail too. I run an imports-exports business. Open chats after 2 October and also look at the chats that he must have deleted,” Gosavi can be heard saying in the video.
“Today if Mumbai Police is looking at his case then the police should first access his information. Today because I am a Marathi person, I feel at least one minister should stand behind me from either the opposition or the ruling party should hear me out and request this to the Mumbai Police. Check his phone records and all allegations will be clear. They are all false allegations. The only people who have taken money are Prabhakar Sail and his brothers,” he added.
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