Non-cognisable offence against NCB witness Sail as Palghar man accuses him of erroneously circulating his photo

Maharashtra police have registered a non-cognisable offence against Prabhakar Sail, NCB's independent witness in the cruise drugs case, for allegedly circulating a man's photo to show that it was that of one Sam D'Souza, whose name has cropped up in the case, an official said

Palghar:Police in Palghar district of Maharashtra have registered a non-cognisable offence against Prabhakar Sail, NCB's independent witness in the cruise drugs case, for allegedly circulating a man's photo to show that it was that of one Sam D'Souza, whose name has cropped up in the case, an official said on Friday.

Sail had levelled allegations of an extortion attempt by the officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs seizure case involving Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Sail had alleged that he overheard K P Gosavi, another witness in the cruise ship raid case, talking to Sam D'Souza over the phone about a demand of Rs 25 crore, including Rs 8 crore for NCB's zonal director Sameer Wankhede, to let off Aryan Khan arrested in the case.

An official of Palghar police station said, "A non-cognisable offence has been registered under IPC sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) against Sail based on a complaint filed by Hainik Bafna, a resident of Palghar."

In his complaint, Bafna alleged that Sail had misused his picture to portray him as one Sam D'Souza, he said.

PTI