Maharashtra minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik on Sunday said BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya, also known as Mohit Kamboj, was the mastermind of the drugs-on-cruise case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is an accused and that he partnered the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede in demanding ransom.

Addressing a press conference, Malik said the sensational drugs bust case off the Goa-bound cruise was a case of kidnapping and ransom and not what it appeared to be. He said Aryan did not buy a ticket for the cruise party, but it was Pratik Gaba and Amir Furniturewala who brought him there.

Malik further said Kamboj and Wankhede had met outside Oshiwara graveyard on October 7, a few days after Aryan was arrested in the case.

“After this, Wankhede panicked and complained to the police that they were being chased. They were lucky that the nearby CCTV was not working and we couldn’t get the feed,” Malik was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

On Saturday, Kamboj had alleged that one Sunil Patil from Dhule, “who is closely associated with NCP leaders, including former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh”, was the mastermind of the cruise drug bust episode.

Meanwhile, Wankhede’s father has reportedly filed a defamation suit against Malik in the Bombay high court and sought ₹1.25 crore in damages.