Sam D'Souza, who has been accused of 'brokering a deal' between witness KP Gosavi and Shah Rukh Khan's manager Pooja Dadlani for a 'payoff' to help Aryan Khan, has told NDTV that he will soon be recording a statement before the Special Investigation Team that has taken over the Mumbai cruise case from NCB officer Sameer Wankhede.
NCB witness Prabhakar Sail had alleged that Gosavi had planned to extract Rs 25 crore from Pooja Dadlani but settled for Rs 18 crore, of which Rs 8 crore was to be paid to Wankhede.
D'Souza told NDTV that he had no idea about the Rs 25-crore deal and that he was only tasked with setting up a meeting between Gosavi and Dadlani. "Gosavi had told me that Aryan Khan was arrested and asked for Pooja Dadlani's number. I said I would try but couldn't get it. Gosavi again came and said no drugs had been found on Aryan and we can help him. I somehow got hold of Dadlani's number and arranged the meeting. I was present at the meeting. Gosavi claimed he was an investigating officer. He also said a lot of things that were not true. He had even saved his bodyguard Prabhakar Sail's number as Sameer Wankhede to mislead us. He had an NCB sticker on his car as well", D'Souza said.
He added that he was 'shocked' to learn that Gosavi had taken Rs 50 lakh from Dadlani and said that he recovered the money.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)