Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only

Opinion Columnists

SWAT Analysis

The scandal that shook Bollywood: How Aryan Khan case exposed an ugly nexus in India

Investigating officials like Sameer Wankhede operated extortion rackets that ruined lives



Aryan Khan was arrested in a drugs case and spent nearly three weeks in jail in 2021. All those charges have been dropped now.
Image Credit: ANI

In India, a corruption case has been registered against Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused Wankhede and four others of seeking a 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan to avoid framing his son Aryan Khan in a drugs case.

Let me tell you the spine-chilling story of the enforcement agencies in India and how corrupt officials are wrecking reputations and lives.

Read more

Besmirched and defamed

As the Covid pandemic cut a cruel swathe through India in October 2021, Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB in a drugs case.

Advertisement

Screeching headlines abounded, and a lurid television spectacle was made, with one female anchor claiming to be reading from private WhatsApp chats claiming that "imma bounce," short for "I am bouncing (leaving)," was code for drug chats. Bold-face names were invoked, and superstar Deepika Padukone and Sara Ali Khan were summoned by the NCB.

Aryan Khan, son of SRK, was arrested in ‘drug bust case’ on Cordelia cruise ship. The case later turned out to be dodgy
Image Credit:

A picture of Aryan Khan, a doppelganger of his father Shah Rukh Khan, still haunts me -- his eyes look like a deer caught in the headlights, forced to pose with two men, after being "arrested." More on these men later.

As a young man, his family's reputation was trashed and ripped apart. Every slur -- from shoddy upbringing to parents doing drugs with their children was heaped at the Khans. I was left incredulous at the way the attack on Khan was orchestrated in social media and the mainstream media.

Advertisement

Circulating and disseminating rumors

Meanwhile, Wankhede enjoyed unprecedented public and government support. He revelled in the 24/7 media gaze, wearing fancy designer clothes and shoes, giving bytes to adoring reporters, and planting and leaking stories on WhatsApp chats of the rarefied stars of Bollywood.

Wankhede fancied himself the scourge of Bollywood; he had earlier filed a drug case against actor Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh suicide case, accusing her of running a drugs racket with her brother and supplying Singh with drugs.

Chakraborty spent months in prison and was painted a scarlet woman, not even being allowed to grieve for her boyfriend's death.

Sameer Wankhede, pictured here with his wife and marathi actress Kranti Redkar. NCB alleges Wankhede and others demanded Rs 25 crore for ‘not framing’ Aryan Khan in the case
Image Credit:

Chakraborty, Khan, and Padukone all faced a social media lynch mob that ripped them apart bit by bit for sport. As an earlier target of the same organised and paid mob, I can empathise.

Advertisement

It took several court hearings and nearly four weeks for Aryan Khan to be granted bail. Eight months later, the same NCB gave him a clean chit in the drugs case. Khan had India's best lawyers working for him, yet when a government official decided that he could extort Shah Rukh Khan, nothing stopped him.

Living a life of grandeur

Soon stories emerged of Wankhede's lavish lifestyle and holidays in fancy seven-star resorts in the Maldives. Conflicting claims of an allegedly fake schedule caste certificate to get a government job also made the rounds.

Nawab Malik, a senior NCP leader, claimed that Wankhede was running a bar in Mumbai with his name on the bar licence. Could serving officials run a bar? Well, yes, it was against the conduct rules, but if you were a blue-eyed boy of the establishment, you could break any rule.

So when the NCB gave Aryan a clean chit, was Wankhede punished for the fraud case? Well, not really. He was eased out of his job and transferred to Chennai. So the punishment for ruining lives was a mere transfer.

Advertisement

Consider this: if Shah Rukh Khan, one of the most influential actors in the world, went through the hell of watching his beloved child being jailed and could only watch helplessly, imagine the lot of activists, opposition leaders, and journalists being harassed.

Extortion by investigating agencies

Remember the two men I mentioned who forced Aryan into a picture? Well, they were the private "tip-off" men of Wankhede, wanted in many cases who would make deals with victims being extorted. Even after an "arrest," they had a free pass to the alleged criminal to make deals.

So why does extortion by investigating agencies thrive? Essentially, we are all to blame. The media has the shortest memory and is invested in sordid headlines. Corrupt officials play the game of leaks and ensure they are made into larger-than-life figures, with gullible reporters swallowing all the tall claims.

Anything an official says is treated as gospel by the media. The crooks know that everything will soon be forgotten, so they wait and then continue the extortion as usual.

Counting on the short memory of the media and people, authorities often do not act on corruption charges of their favored officials.

Advertisement

The only way is to hold the government accountable. How many of us in the media are doing that? For the public, don't just buy the scandal claims, be skeptical.

It could be your son or daughter tomorrow.

Swati Chaturvedi
Swati Chaturvedi is an award-winning journalist and author of ‘I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army’.
Advertisement