Former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, Sameer Wankhede, told the court on May 19 that he was not guilty of seeking bribe from Shah Rukh Khan to release his son, Aryan Khan, in the October 2021 Cordelia cruise drugs bust case. To support his claim, Wankhede presented the WhatsApp messages exchanged between Shah Rukh Khan and himself when Aryan Khan was in CBI custody. In the messages, the superstar is seen pleading with Sameer Wankhede to release his son “without losing your integrity as an officer of law”. In one message, the actor says, “Please show some kindness my man… I can only plead and beg you as a father.”
A vacation bench of the Bombay high court on May 19 granted Wankhede relief after he gave an undertaking to remain present at the CBI office on May 20 at 11 a.m. The high court restrained the CBI from taking any “coercive action” till May 22. Wankhede has been accused of demanding Rs. 25 crore bribe for not implicating Aryan in the case in which the latter was ultimately not chargesheeted.