Private detective Kiran Gosavi, who is the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) "independent witness" in the ongoing alleged cruise ship drug case involving Aryan Khan, was nabbed by police in Pune, Maharashtra on Thursday morning.
He was arrested in connection with a 2018 cheating case.
Gosavi was declared NCB's "independent witness" in Aryan's alleged drug case.
Several political leaders and netizens sparked an uproar on social media questioning why an "independent witness" of the NCB would be present at the raid and its office and take selfies with the high-profile accused and post them on social media.
Trouble mounted for Gosavi last week when Prabhakar Rohoji Sail, who claimed to be Gosavi's personal bodyguard and another witness in the cruise ship drug case, made serious allegations of bribery against him.
Sail alleged that Gosavi took INR 5 million ($66,815) from an individual after the raid on the cruise on 2 October.
Sail also revealed that he heard Gosavi having a telephone conversation about payoffs with Sam D'Souza.
Sail claimed Gosavi told Sam that they should ask for a bribe of INR 250 million ($3.33 million) and then settle at INR 180 million ($2.4 million), of which INR 80 million ($1.06 million) is for the NCB's zonal officer, Sameer Wankhede, who is in charge of this investigation.
Denying Sail's bribery allegations, Gosavi issued a video statement on Thursday in which he requested the investigation team to cross-check call detail records (CDR) and chats.
"Sail is lying. I just want to request that his CDR (call details record) should be released. My CDR report or chat should be issued, along with the CDR report of Sail and his brother, then everything will be clear", Gosavi said in the video statement.
The Raid
After getting a tip-off about the cruise rave party, the NCB conducted a raid on 2 October and arrested Aryan and his friends Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ishmeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhokar, and Gomit Chopra.
They were held on 3 October for allegedly possessing and consuming drugs on a cruise ship off the coast of Mumbai.
Although Aryan's lawyer claimed that he had simply been invited to the event by the party organisers and that no drugs were recovered from him, NCB officer Sameer Wankhede said there was evidence to the contrary.
So far, the NCB has arrested as many as 20 people, including Aryan.
Aryan and the other defendants have been in jail since 8 October and are waiting to be granted bail by an Indian court.
On the other hand, Sameer Wankhede, the NCB officer investigating the case, has been accused of extortion, fraud, and framing Aryan Khan and others by Maharashtra State Minister Nawab Malik.
Meanwhile, a special team of NCB officers from New Delhi has arrived in Mumbai to investigate the allegations against Sameer Wankhede and the drug raid carried out at the beginning of October.
The bail plea by Aryan, and his friends is currently being heard at the Bombay High Court.