NCB has no connection with BJP: Ramdas Athawale refutes Nawab Malik`s allegations

The Union Minister said that the NCP leader is deliberately making false allegations against BJP and that the anti-drug agency is an independent entity and is doing its work correctly.

New Delhi: Amid Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's allegations that there is a connection between the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday (October 10, 2021) said that the anti-drug agency is an independent entity and its activities have no connections with the saffron party. 

Refuting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader's allegations, Athawale told ANI, "NCB is an independent body. It has no connections with BJP. When it comes to its activities and functioning, political parties are completely unrelated and irrelevant. Malik is deliberately making false allegations against the BJP. NCB is doing its work correctly."

Nawab Malik had on Saturday alleged that there exists a connection between the Zonal Director of NCB Mumbai unit and BJP leaders.

"After the raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast, NCB's Sameer Wankhede had said that eight to ten people were detained. But the truth is that 11 people were detained. Later, three people; Rishabh Sachdeva, Prateek Gaba and Amir Furniturewala were released," he claimed.

Malik had also questioned that on whose directions did the NCB release those three people when a total of 11 people were detained after the cruise ship raid. He also claimed that the raid was "fake" and that "outsiders" were involved in it.

This is to be noted that an NCB team had busted an alleged drugs party on a cruise ship that was on its way to Goa at mid-sea on October 2. The Narcotics Control Bureau has so far arrested 20 people in connection with the case, including Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan.

Meanwhile, an NCB official on Sunday said that two men, whom Malik had claimed as "outsiders" involved in the raid, were actually among the nine independent witnesses involved in the whole operation. He informed that the duo was not known to the NCB before October 2, when the raid was conducted on the Goa-bound ship.

A total of nine independent witnesses were involved in the whole operation and Manish Bhanushali and KP Gosavi were among them. 

"None of the independent witnesses, including the two (Bhanushali and Gosavi) were known to the NCB before October 2," the official said.

The NCB had earlier said that all the allegations levelled against it in connection with the cruise ship raid were "baseless, motivated afterthoughts and prejudicial". NCB's Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede had said the anti-drugs agency works professionally. 

"We do not see any political party and religion. We do our job professionally," he added.

(With agency inputs)