Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday sought to know why the Narcotics Control Bureau was saving Kashif Khan, one of the organisers of the cruise party where the NCB conducted a raid last month, and what was his relationship with the anti-drugs agency officer Sameer Wankhede. He claimed that Khan and NCB's Mumbai zonal director Wankhede have a "strong relationship."

Malik also tweeted purported chats of NCB witness K P Gosavi and an informer from Delhi, which, he said, "shows they were planning to trap people who were going to attend the party on the Cordelia Cruise. This is Sameer Wankhede's private army, therefore he has a lot to answer," the NCP leader said.

Gosavi is the NCB's witness in the cruise drugs case in which at least 20 people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, were arrested following the raid on October 2. Gosavi was last month arrested by the Maharashtra Police for alleged forgery.

According to Malik, the Delhi-based "informer" had told Gosavi about Kashif and one White Dubey. "Why is Kashif Khan not being questioned? What is the relationship between Kashif Khan and Sameer Wankhede?" the minister asked.

He said it is a known fact that the drugs business exists in Goa through the Russian mafia. Goa is also under the jurisdiction of NCB's Mumbai office, he noted. "There is no action in Goa because the drug racket thrives through Kashif Khan," Malik alleged.

He claimed there were several cases of alleged forgery against Kashif, and wondered why the NCB was trying to save him. Last week, Congress minister Aslam Shaikh said he was invited by Kashif Khan to the cruise party on October 2. Malik had also said that Kashif tried hard to get Shaikh and children of top ministers of the state government to come to the party.

Malik has dubbed the cruise party raid as "fake" and accused the NCB and Wankhede of framing people. Wankhede had earlier denied the allegations levelled against him.

Earlier this year, Malik's son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the NCB in an alleged drugs case and was later released on bail.