Soon after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, in the Cordelia drugs bust case, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came down on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government for its “attempts to defame the state and Bollywood”.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said “truth prevails” and slammed BJP for trying to “demonise” Maharashtra by “misusing Central agencies.”
“One tight slap on fraud PR created Singham, the news media channels who work in the service of BJP, the BJP actress- spokesperson, those who tried to demonise Maharashtra through misusing central agencies. Truth prevails. Now waiting for CBI to submit its closure report on SSR,” Chaturvedi tweeted.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), another ruling alliance partner, was quick to take the credit, saying it was its minister Nawab Malik who had raised questions on the agency’s action and the intention of Sameer Wankhede, zonal director of NCB.
“The objections raised by Malik to the way the raid was carried out and the selection of witnesses having close affinity with BJP were found valid,” Mahesh Tapase, NCP’s chief spokesman, said.
Tapase said Malik had also questioned the style of functioning and the character of Wankhede. “Malik made serious allegations on the style of working of Wankhede, thereby drawing the ire of some powerful people in Delhi. Today he is paying the price for speaking the truth.” Malik is currently in jail on money-laundering charges.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole said Aryan Khan was targeted by BJP as he was a Muslim and son of actor Shahrukh Khan and right from the beginning, his party had said that the NCB was used to help BJP win the Uttar Pradesh polls in February. Patole was speaking to reporters in Palghar after inaugurating a physiotherapy college.
Atul Londhe, general secretary and MPCC spokesperson, said, “Satyameva jayate. The truth can never be suppressed. We have been saying right from day one that this was a conspiracy to cheat the people and was part of a larger design to pull down the MVA government… it is good that this is now in the public domain.”
Maharashtra BJP vice president Madhav Bhandari said, “I have not seen the entire chargesheet filed by the NCB. I think the agency must have explained its stand in the chargesheet why Aryan Khan was arrested and why he was in jail. It is their duty to explain this. What the NCP and other ruling parties are saying is immaterial as it is their primary business to target us [BJP] on every single issue.”
On the seizure of 52 kg of cocaine worth ₹500 crore by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at Mundra port on May 24, Patole blamed the Centre, saying it wanted to create a ‘Udta Punjab’ image among the youth.
(With inputs from Ram Parmar)