Union Minister Ramdas Athawale,  rushed to support the BJP, in refuting the allegations of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik who claimed that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) was acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Athawale said that the NCB is an independent body and has no connection with the BJP.

“NCB is an independent body. It has no connections with BJP. When it comes to its activities and functioning, political parties are completely unrelated and irrelevant. Malik is deliberately making false allegations against the BJP. NCB is doing its work correctly,” Athawale told news agency ANI.

On whose direction the NCB released three of 11 detained? Malik

On Saturday, Mallik had alleged that the NCB and the BJP had ‘some connection’. “We think there might have been some talks between Sameer Wankhede and BJP leaders,” he had said, adding, “After the raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast, NCB’s Sameer Wankhede had said that eight to ten people were detained. But the truth is that 11 people were detained. Later, three people; Rishabh Sachdeva, Prateek Gaba and Amir Furniturewala were released.”

He questioned why and on whose directions the NCB released three of the 11 people detained on the cruise ship. On October 2, the NCB busted an alleged drugs party on Cordelia Cruise, a ship that was on its way to Goa.

The agency has, so far, arrested 19 people, including a drug peddler. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan is among those detained by the agency from the ship.