Aide of NCB witness in Mumbai cruise drugs bust held in Pune cheating case

PTI, Oct 18, 2021, 8:23 PM IST

Police on Monday arrested a 27-year-old female assistant of K P Gosavi, an independent witness of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs-on-cruise bust, in a 2018 cheating case registered in Pune in which the latter is the main accused, an official said.

Last week, the Pune police had issued a lookout circular against Gosavi, the main suspect, in connection with the cheating case to prevent him from leaving the country.

Rajendra Landage, senior inspector, Faraskhana police station, said they have arrested one Sherbano Kureshi, a resident of Govandi in Mumbai, in connection with the case in which one Chinmay Deshmukh was allegedly cheated by Gosavi to the tune of Rs 3.09 lakh on the pretext of offering him a job in Malaysia in the hotel industry.

He said Kureshi was Gosavi’s assistant and the swindled money was received in her bank account.

”During investigation, it was revealed that Gosavi used to withdraw money from her account without her knowledge,” he said.

Landage added that Kureshi was arrested on Monday and produced before a local court which remanded her in police custody till October 23.

Gosavi is one of the nine independent witnesses of the NCB in the case related to alleged recovery of drugs from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is one of the accused arrested in the drugs case.

Deshmukh, who was allegedly cheated by Gosavi, had registered a complaint against him. According to the complaint, Deshmukh had contacted Gosavi after he put up an advertisement on social media about some vacancy in the hotel industry in Malaysia.

”While promising a job in Malaysia, Gosavi collectively took Rs 3.09 lakh from him in installments. However, he neither offered any job to him nor paid his money back,” an official from the Faraskhana police station had said earlier.

The complaint against Gosavi was registered in 2018 under various IPC sections, including 420 (cheating), and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.