The Maharashtra Police on Sunday filed a case of cheating and forgery against private detective Kiran Gosavi, who was said to be an independent witness of the Narcotics Control Bureau in a recent drugs bust in Mumbai, The Indian Express.

The police in Palghar district registered a first information report against Gosavi based on the complaint filed by two people named Utkarsh Tare and Adarsh Keni in 2018. This is the fourth FIR that has been registered against him.

The police have accused Gosavi of duping Tare and Keni of Rs 1.65 lakh on the pretext of finding jobs for them in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.

The complaint states that Gosavi allegedly gave fake tourist visas and flight tickets to Tare and Keni, according to The Indian Express.

On October 6, Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik alleged that Gosavi and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manish Bhanushali took part in the Narcotics Control Bureau’s raid on a cruise ship in a drugs case, after which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested.

Gosavi was seen in a selfie he had clicked with Aryan Khan inside the Narcotics Control Bureau office. Malik had questioned whether the agency had the authority to allow private citizens to take part in such raids.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, however, claimed that Gosavi and Bhanushali were independent witnesses in the case.

A Pune Police official subsequently told The Print that Gosavi has been declared as an absconder in a 2018 cheating case.

On October 13, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, in a press conference, questioned why the agency made Gosavi a witness to the alleged seizure of drugs, when he himself was absconding.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Kishore Tiwari has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding a judicial inquiry into the functioning of the Narcotics Control Bureau in the context of Khan’s arrest. PTI reported.

Tiwari has urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter and protect Khan’s fundamental rights.

He accused officials of the agency of “targeting select film celebrity and few models” in the past two years.