Cordelia bribery case: Accused D'Souza seeks pre-arrest bail, plea likely to be heard on Wednesday

Sanville alias Sam D'Souza, an accused in a case related to allegedly seeking a Rs 25 crore bribe from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan in the 2021 Cordelia cruise drug bust, on Tuesday moved an anticipatory bail application before a special court in Mumbai.

His plea is likely to be heard by the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday.

Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who supervised the raid on the Goa-bound Cordelia ship off the city coast, is one of the accused in the bribery case.

D'Souza sought anticipatory bail days after the Bombay High Court refused to grant him interim protection from any coercive action like arrest while hearing his petition for quashing the FIR (first information report) against him.

A vacation bench of the HC, while refusing to provide any relief, had told the accused he can approach a sessions court for advance bail. Following this, D'Souza withdrew his petition from the High Court.

The CBI recently filed an FIR against Wankhede for allegedly seeking Rs 25 crore bribe for not framing Aryan Khan in the drugs-on-cruise case.

The central probe agency has booked the 2008-batch IRS officer and four others for alleged criminal conspiracy and extortion threats, besides provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the NCB.

The CBI has said the NCB, Mumbai Zone, received information in October 2021 related to consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on the private cruise ship and alleged some of its officers conspired and obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes from the accused.

Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, after a raid on the Cordelia cruise ship, and granted bail by the HC three weeks later. The drug law enforcement agency in May 2022 filed a chargesheet in the case, but did not name Aryan Khan and five others due to lack of sufficient evidence.