MUMBAI: Former narcotics officer Sameer Wankhede, accused of trying to extort money from Shah Rukh Khan after the arrest of his son Aryan Khan in 2021, on Friday released what he said was a chat with the Bollywood superstar as part of his defence.
Sameer Wankhede, former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau in Mumbai, has submitted in the Bombay High Court the screenshots of the chats in which Shah Rukh Khan allegedly begged Aryan Khan to be released.

Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3, 2021 following an anti-narcotics raid on a party on a cruise ship. He was released almost a month later.

SRK: The CBI has now accused Wankhede of asking Shah Rukh Khan for a bribe of ₹25 crore not to implicate Aryan Khan.

In the chats Wankhede submitted to the court, SRK appears to have written long, desperate messages urging the officer to release his son. The authenticity of NDTV Chats cannot be independently verified.

“Please don’t let him stay in that prison man. Come these holidays, he’ll be a broken man. His spirit will be destroyed by some people. You promised to reform my child, don’t put him in a place where he can come out completely beaten and broken. It’s not his fault,” the 57-year-old said. writes the actor, according to a screenshot.

“I request you to have mercy on me and my family. We are simple people, my son is a bit lost but he doesn’t deserve to be in jail like a hardened criminal. You know that too. As a heartthrob both messages often end with the sign “Love srk”.

Chats are not confirmed. Neither Shah Rukh Khan nor his legal team responded.

In a screenshot, the actor promises Wankhede that he will do “everything in his power” to get someone to retract a statement. “I promise I’ll do everything and I won’t stop begging them to stop. But please send my son home. You know in your heart it’s been a little tough on him now. Please, I’m begging you as a father,” he pleads, according to a screenshot.

The officer’s reply, in short: “Shah Rukh I know you as a good man. Let’s hope for the best. Take care of yourself.”

Some of the messages appear to have been sent on October 4, a day after the arrests, and went past midnight and into the early hours of the morning.

SRK seems to say that he knows this is “officially inappropriate and may be completely wrong”, but pleads with him to speak “for once as a father”.

On October 14, when Aryan Khan’s bail plea came up in court, SRK appeared to plead with the officer to “show some mercy”, but the officer replied: “Dear Shahrukh, I want to talk to you as a friend. Not as a zonal director, but to explain to you the current situation, all the rudeness and Unscrupulous elements disturb the whole atmosphere.I wanted to see the children in a reform approach and give them a chance for a better life and national service.But unfortunately my efforts are maligned by some dirty people with wrong and vested interests.

Wankhede was granted protection by the high court from any “compulsory action” in the extortion case registered against him. The former NCP officer requested the court to quash the FIR registered against him by the CBI.

The NCB report alleged that Wankhede had taken several trips abroad with his family and had large assets commensurate with his income.