The Bombay High Court allowed the IRS officer to alter his plea and add further grounds that the one paying a bribe should also be prosecuted in the most recent development in the extortion and bribery case involving former Mumbai Zonal Director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, Sameer Wankhede. The case involves Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and the drug use on a cruise. The CBI claims that when drugs were reportedly found on the cruise ship, Wankhede and four other suspects requested Rs 25 crore in payment from actor Shah Rukh Khan to avoid framing his son Aryan. In May, Wankhede requested that the lawsuit be dismissed and requested interim protection from any coercive action. The high court gave him this protection. On Wednesday, Wankhede’s attorneys Aabad Ponda, Rizwan Merchant, and Sneha Sanap asked the court for permission to amend the petition to add new grounds related to sections that state that anyone who offers/gives a bribe to a public servant in order to induce him or her and obtain an unfair advantage is also subject to prosecution. Wankhede was given permission to modify the plea by a division bench of justices, but they ruled that further revisions would not be allowed. On July 20, the bench continued the hearing of the petition and ordered the CBI to reply to the modified petition by that date. The bench posted the plea for further hearing on July 20 and said the CBI should respond to the amended plea by then. The court extended the interim protection granted to Wankhede till July 20.
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