Overview
- In the latest hearing, a bench led by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar said it would not examine the 2021 arrest memo or purported WhatsApp chats while deciding Sameer Wankhede’s plea to quash the case.
- The judges called those materials disputed and said such facts cannot be relied on at the threshold, while also warning that repeated filings and delays are stalling progress in similar matters.
- Wankhede maintains he never sought or accepted a bribe from Shah Rukh Khan, and his lawyer says there is no proof of any demand or payment tied to him, arguing the extortion charge does not fit because the arrest note cited a lower-level drug use offence.
- The CBI’s FIR from May 2023 alleges a ₹25 crore demand later pegged at ₹18 crore and names former NCB officials Vishwa Vijay Singh and Ashish Ranjan along with Kiran Gosavi and Sanville D’Souza, and the ED opened a linked money-laundering probe in 2024.
- The case narrative draws on witness Prabhakar Sail’s 2021 affidavit describing a meeting with Shah Rukh Khan’s manager and cash bags later counted at ₹38 lakh, while a 2022 NCB SIT dropped Aryan Khan from the drugs case and flagged poor seizure records and last-minute name additions.