Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the drugs-on-cruise case involving Aryan Khan, died of a heart attack, police said on Saturday.
Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse-Patil said the death seemed suspicious and he has ordered director general of police Rajnish Seth to conduct a probe.
“Prabhakar Sail, 37, died of a heart attack at his house in Mahul (in Mumbai) on Friday evening,” a police official said earlier in the day. He was rushed to the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar where he was declared brought dead, the official added.
“The sudden death of Sail looks suspicious and I have ordered the DGP to probe the matter,” Walse-Patil told reporters.
The police initiated a probe by registering an accidental death report at suburban RCF Police Station. Sail was living in a rented house in Mahul area for the last few days, said a senior police official, adding it was not immediately known why he had shifted there.
Sail's lawyer Tushar Khandare confirmed that he suffered a heart attack, and said Sail’s family members do not suspect foul play.
Sail, who claimed to be the bodyguard of NCB witness K. P. Gosavi, had alleged in an affidavit that he had heard Gosavi discussing a Rs 25 crore pay-off deal to let off Aryan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, in an alleged drug seizure case. The NCB had told a court later that Sail has turned hostile.
Aryan Khan was arrested during an NCB raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 3, 2021.
