Former NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede, accused of demanding a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the 2021 drugs-on-cruise case, has claimed in his petition that the superstar praised the officer’s “integrity” and pleaded with him to be kind to Aryan.
As per Wankhede’s petition before the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the CBI for bribery, Khan deplored the political involvement in the case.
As per the transcript provided in the petition, in one of the messages, the actor said, “God bless you. I have to come personally whenever you say and give a hug to you. Let me please know whenever it’s convenient for you. Really I have always had the highest regard for your uprightness and now it has increased manifolds. Big respect. Love srk” “Please show some kindness my man. Love srk I can only plead and beg you as a father. Please,” the superstar said in another chat, as per the petition. Wankhede told the actor in one conversation that he wanted to be kind to “the child and look at him in a reformatory way,” but the effort was “maligned by vested interest people.” The actor replied that his son was not part of that and “You know his part is minuscule in it.
All he needs is reformation…” Khan also said, as per the transcript, that he “went out of my way and without even knowing them (those with vested interest) called and begged them not to involve my child in their politics.” On Friday, a vacation bench of Justices Sharmila U Deshmukh and Arif S Doctor, after recording Wankhede’s undertaking that he will remain present at the CBI’s office on Saturday, directed the agency not to take any “coercive action” against him till 22 May.
