MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday rejected a plea for anticipatory bail by Sam D’souza, whose name has come up in connection with the Cordelia cruise drugs case.
“The applicant has preferred the application without approaching sessions court and therefore it is rejected,” said Justice Surendra Tavade. He heard a plea by Sanville D’souza, alias Sam D’souza, who had also urged for three days’ notice before any coercive step is taken against him.
D’souza moved court apprehending arrest by the special investigation team set up by the state government to look into the payoff allegations. There was an allegation made by a witness, Prabhakar Sail, that a deal of Rs 18 crore was made for the release of Aryan Khan. Sail had specifically named D’souza as a beneficiary.
D’souza’s advocate argued that he is not arraigned as an accused and there is no FIR against him. “During the course of the whole thing, allegations made by some persons against Sameer Wankhede stating that to grant relief, he had taken money,” he said. But Justice Tavade interrupted him, saying he won’t hear the petition. “I’m not going to entertain this. You have a forum. Don’t waste my time,” he added.
The petition said D’souza is a consultant in a stone quarry business. On October 1, he was contacted by an associate Sunil Patil, who had information about drug use on Cordelia and the involvement of celebrities. Patil told Sam that Kiran Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali would contact him. Patil took NCB officials’ contact numbers from D’souza. On October 2, Patil said that a very influential person was arrested for drugs and asked D’souza to verify. Gosavi told him that Aryan was arrested and he wanted to speak to his father’s manager Pooja Dadlani.
D’souza’s petition said he contacted Dadlani through a mutual friend, a hotelier, and met her at Lower Parel. Dadlani allegedly told him she “is the decision-taker.” D’souza introduced Gosavi to Dadlani. Gosavi showed her a list in which Aryan’s name was not present and informed her that Khan had no drugs on him and he could help Aryan “get out of the situation.” Thereafter, Dadlani and Gosavi spoke in private, he said.
On October 3, D’souza said he was “shocked” to learn an FIR has been registered against Khan. After that, he learnt from Patil that Gosavi had taken Rs 50 lakh from Dadlani through Sail, who is also Gosavi’s bodyguard. D’souza said he realized Gosavi was a fraud and that his “only motive was to recover the money than be known for fraud.” Therefore he contacted Patil and Gosavi, recovered the money and returned it to Dadlani through her husband.
D’souza’s petition said he is innocent and has nothing to do with the alleged offence and he is falsely implicated by Sail.
