The suspicion gathered momentum when Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik held a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday and alleged that a BJP leader, Manish Bhanushali, and a private detective had boarded the ship with NCB officials. When the duo posted a selfie with Aryan Khan, NCB hastily issued a press statement saying the men in the photograph were not NCB officials. Once they were identified as BJP workers, the NCB claimed they were independent witnesses taken by the raiding party.
The NCP leader caused even more flutter by claiming that there was a buzz in Mumbai over the past several weeks that central agencies would be targeting the Bollywood actor. While Shah Rukh Khan, unlike a large number of other Bollywood actors and directors, has not gone overboard posting selfies with BJP leaders or wishing them on their birthday, he has also been conspicuous by his absence at events attended by the senior functionaries of BJP and RSS.
The NCB, which had gone after junior actor Rhea Chakraborty, the former girlfriend of actor Sushant Singh Rajput who committed suicide, for allegedly procuring drugs for Rajput, appears to have spent enormous time and effort since then to bust the drug racket in Mumbai. But for its endeavours, it does not seem to have succeeded in choking the supply of drugs or in identifying the real big bosses controlling the supply. On the contrary it seems to have concentrated on headline grabbing raids of high profile parties and going after the consumers. The relatively small recoveries it has made also puts a question mark on its performance.
It is as yet unknown how many tip offs the BJP leaders in Mumbai have actually given to the NCB till now. What is the basis of their tips and have they or their background been investigated?