Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Saturday said it had detained a total of 14 persons in the rave party raid on a cruise ship but 6 were let off as no incriminating evidence was found against them, while dismissing all allegations against the agency as ‘baseless, prejudiced and motivated’.

Currently, the NCB is interrogating the 18 accused arrested and remanded to custody for various periods

Responding to the contentions raised by Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, NCB Deputy Director-General Gyaneshwar Singh said all the 14 were served notice under Section 67 of NDPS Act, examined thoroughly and their statements also recorded.

“There 8 persons (including Aryan Khan) were arrested and remaining 6 were let off. However, in the course of investigation they can be associated if need arises as per law,” Singh stated.

Referring to Malik’s allegation of involvement of two Bharatiya Janata Party activists in the raid, the NCB head said as operations are conducted on realtime basis, “field verification” of independent witnesses is not possible as the main focus is recovering contraband.

“A total of 9 independent witnesses were involved in the whole operation and Manish Bhanushali and KP Gosavi were among them. None of the independent witnesses, including the 2 names above, were known to NCB before 02/10/2021,” Singh said.

Replying to Malik’s charges that 3 persons were allowed to go late night of October 2, by the NCB, Singh added that since high-profile people were detained, all were rushed into the safety of the NCB office to avoid the crowd and the media glare, but none of them were ill-treated in any manner.

On the questions raised pertaining to the ‘panchnamas’, the NCB head said these are made on the respective spots so the place, timing, situation and resources may differ, but they are part of the court records and will be included in the charge-sheet in future, and also open to scrutiny at appropriate fora.

Currently, the NCB is interrogating the 18 accused arrested and remanded to custody for various periods, and based on their revelations, the NCB carried out 6 follow-up seizures and arrests.