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Manish Rajgaria, the youth from Rourkela who was granted bail on Wednesday in the high profile drug bust case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is one of the accused, on Friday made some startling disclosures.
Following his return to Odisha, Manish today alleged that he had been ‘trapped’ along with his friend Avin Sahu in the case. Manish and Avin had been arrested by the officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on October 5 for alleged possession of 2.4 gm of Ganja (dry cannabis).
“We had just gone to enjoy on the cruise and booked tickets online. A total of seven persons from Rourkela were onboard the cruise. However, an argument ensued with the cruise officials for which they trapped us on false pretext,” alleged Manish who along with Avin were the first to be granted bail by NDPS court. Aryan along with two more the key accused in the case, Aarbaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were granted bail by the Bombay High Court yesterday.
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In an exclusive interview to OTV, Manish said the staff and security personnel on the cruise picked up a quarrel with them when they complained of delayed allotment of rooms.
“Moreover, the rooms were dirty, the service was poor and the air conditioners were not working though we had paid nearly Rs 4 to 5 lakh for the trip. We also complained about the deficiency in service,” he said.
“We almost had a brawl with the staff onboard the cruise. When the cruise ship returned to the shores on Monday (October 4), we did not have any idea that NCB would arrest us. Subsequently, the NCB team, including Sameer Wankhade, put the organisors under arrest,” Manish said.
We Were Trapped:
Manish alleged that an official on the cruise handed over a pouch to the NCB officials claiming that it contained Ganja which had been recovered from us.
“The concerned official also claimed before the NCB that he had seen Avin consuming narcotics on the deck and he (official) subsequently turned a witness in the case,” Manish said. “We had no clue how to react to such allegations. The NCB officials took away our phones and told us to accompany them to their office for further investigation. After 6 to 7 days of probe, the officials realised that we were not involved in all these at all,” said Manish.
On Getting Bail Prior To Aryan….
“I got bail earlier than Aryan as the NCB did not find any drugs on us which were actually given to them by the staff on the cruise. We proved in court that the contraband did not belong to us. NCB would also have submitted a report in the court supporting our contention.”
Comments On NCB And Conversations With Aryan….
“We received lot of support from the NCB sleuths and they did not treat us like culprits,” said Manish. Manish said he was at the NCB office along with Aryan and others for nearly 7 to 8 days.
“We talked to each other in general terms and conversation with Aryan centred around family and related things during our stay. However, we could not discuss matters related to the case as NCB officials were present round-the-clock,” he added.
