A state minister from India's Maharashtra, Nawab Malik, has ratcheted up the pressure on Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB's) officer Sameer Wankhede, accusing him of extortion, fraud and framing Aryan Khan in the ongoing cruise ship drug case.
Malik, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) politician, held a press conference on Wednesday morning and accused officer Wankhede of extortion.
He raised questions against Wankhede's previous investigations involving Bollywood actresses Deepika Padukone, Sara Ali Khan, and Shraddha Kapoor, and asked why no arrests had been made despite police complaints.
The state minister claimed that Wankhede has extorted more than INR10 billion (roughly $133 million) from Bollywood celebrities.
On Tuesday, Malik posted a letter on Twitter which he had apparently received from an NCB official that claimed that Wankhede had broken rules and framed people to extort money.
On Wednesday, Malik made a personal attack on Wankhede as he posted documents and pictures on Twitter, accusing him of forging documents to secure his government job with the help of a caste certificate.
The minister also tweeted pictures of Wankhede's first wedding when he married Dr Shabana Quraishi, performed in Islamic style in 2006.
However, Wankhede's second wife, Kranti Redkar, and his family rushed to his defence and said Wankhede's birth certificate which was posted by Malik is wrong. They said he legally didn't change his religion and caste because his first wife was a Muslim, they got married according to Islamic tradition.
Wankhede's father Dnyandev Wankhede also said to Indian media that the family are Hindu Dalits (so-called Untouchables) and not Muslims.
Meanwhile, five members of the NCB have arrived in Mumbai to investigate allegations against Wankhede and the drugs raid carried out at the beginning of October.
After getting a tip-off about the cruise rave party, the NCB raided it on 2 October and the next day arrested Aryan and his friends Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ishmeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhokar, and Gomit Chopra.
Although Aryan's lawyer claimed that he had simply been invited to the event by the party organisers, and no drugs were recovered from him, NCB officer Wankhede said there was evidence to the contrary.
So far, the NCB has arrested 18 people, including Aryan, since the raid on the ship. They have been held for allegedly possessing and consuming drugs on the cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.
Aryan and the other defendants have been in jail since 3 October and are waiting to see whether they will be granted bail.