Hours after the the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave ‘clean chit’ to Aryan Khan and 5 others in the mid-sea drug bust case, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders said on Friday that they stood “vindicated” and that the development was a “huge slap” on the Opposition BJP in the state.
Defending currently incarcerated senior NCP leader and state minister Nawab Malik who had accused the NCB of trying to implicate falsely Aryan Khan and others in the drug bust case, NCP’s Chief Spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said: “Malik’s observations of how the entire raid was conducted and selection of witnesses having ‘close affinity with BJP’ was valid and now is laid bare by the NCB”.
“We have always maintained that the NCB is a very credible organisation having impeccable track record but the way things were happening in recent times put question marks on the conduct of the organisation,” he said.
“Nawab Malik had made serious allegations on the style of working of ( NCB’s then Mumbai zonal chief Samir Wankhede thereby drawing the ire of some powerful people in Delhi. Today Nawab Malik is paying the price for speaking the truth,” Tapase said.
It may be recalled that Malik had dubbed the mid-drug bust case as a ‘farjiwada’ (fraud) perpetrated in collaboration with the BJP.
Congress’ Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe said the raid on the Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises' Empress ship, off the Mumbai coast on October 2-3, 2021 and subsequent happenings were part of the “huge conspiracy by the BJP government misusing the central probe agencies to discredit and topple the MVA government” which have failed.
“Now, the NCB’s decision to drop charges against Aryan and five others is a slap on their face… Satyameva Jayate’... Instead of continuing to indulge in such tactics, it will be better if the BJP learns now that it works for the welfare of the people,” Londhe said.