Year-ender 2021: 10 Mumbai personalities who grabbed the headlines

Sameer Wankhede, Aryan Khan and Param Bir Singh. Pics/ midday photographers

1. Aryan Khan: After being arrested in the Cordelia cruise ship drugs case, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son remained on top of the news cycle in the last quarter of the year. On October 2, after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) conducted a raid on the cruise ship, en route Goa from Mumbai, Aryan was detained along with his friend Arbaaz Merchant and six others.

The court recently exempted Aryan from appearing before NCB every Friday. Pic/ Ashish Raje

During the raid, it was reported that the NCB had seized illegal drugs such as cocaine, charas and MDMA. The next day Aryan and others were arrested on charges of involvement in ‘consumption, sale and purchase of the contraband'. What followed was a media frenzy over the star son's every step as he moved in and out of courts. Finally, on October 28, the Bombay High Court granted him bail, saying ‘no evidence was found to suggest a conspiracy'. Aryan returned to a lit-up ‘Mannat' on October 30. Recently, the Bombay High Court granted relief to Aryan and exempted him from appearing before NCB every Friday.

Sameer Wankhede's NCB tenure ends on December 31. Pic/ PTI

2. Sameer Wankhede: NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, the man behind the raid to bust an alleged rave party on the Cordelia cruise ship, which led to the arrest of Aryan Khan, had already made a name for himself as a cop with a ‘no-nonsense' attitude. From catching singer Mika Singh with foreign currency at the Mumbai airport in 2013 to ensuring the World Cup trophy in 2011 was released from the airport only after paying duty and spearheading the drugs investigation case involving actor Rhea Chakraborty and her brother Showik, which began after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the 41-year-old is no stranger to headlines.

What kept the 2008-batch IRS officer in the news this year was first the allegation by an independent witness in the drugs cruise case, who said Rs 25 crore was demanded on behalf of Wankhede to let off Aryan Khan, and then NCP leader Nawab Malik's tirades against Wankhede---from calling the raid ‘fake' to alleging that Wankhede extorted money from Bollywood stars and questioning the latter's religion and having a fake caste certificate. Subsequently, Wankhede was removed from the Aryan Khan case and now faces an internal probe on charges of extortion, forgery and misrepresentation. Wankhede's tenure with the NCB) will end on December 31. He joined NCB in 2020 and was earlier posted with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).

The NCB leader had claimed that Sameer Wankhede 'kidnapped' Aryan Khan. File Pic

3. Nawab Malik: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader started off with ‘spilling the beans' in the Aryan Khan case. In multiple press conferences, Malik spoke about how a 'conspiracy' was hatched to arrest Aryan in the drugs cruise case, at the helm of which was NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede. Malik's Twitter account was galore with posts questioning Wankhede's religion, caste and even his marriage. This led to Wankhede's father Dnyandev filing a police complaint and a court case against the NCP leader. Recently, Malik tendered an ‘unconditional apology' to the Bombay High Court for making public remarks against the NCB officer and his family.

An ED investigation found that Mumbai bar owners had paid Deshmukh Rs 4 crore in three months. File Pic

4. Anil Deshmukh: The former Maharashtra home minister was arrested on November 2 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This came after former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh accused him of asking police officers, including the SUV bomb scare case accused and former assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, to collect Rs 100 crore from bar owners as bribes, when the minister was in office from December 2020 to February 2021. This led to the CBI registering an FIR against Deshmukh on charges of bribery, corruption and criminal conspiracy on April 24. The ED also got on Deshmukh's trail and filed a money laundering case against him for allegedly obtaining illegal gratification. On June 24, the investigating agency searched Deshmukh's residence after finding a money trail of Rs 4 crore, allegedly paid by bar owners in Mumbai to Deshmukh over three months. The next day Deshmukh's personal assistant Kundan Shinde and personal secretary Sanjeev Palande were arrested. The ED also summoned Deshmukh for questioning, which he skipped five times. At last, the Bombay High Court refused to quash the summons against him and Deshmukh appeared before the ED on November 1. He was arrested the next day.

A Mumbai court had declared Param Bir Singh as an 'absconding accused'. Pic/ Ashish Raje

5. Param Bir Singh: The 1988-batch IPS officer, who came to the limelight over the arrest of BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, suffered a downfall this year. From shielding his former colleague and SUV bomb scare accused Sachin Vaze to being involved in various extortion cases, the former Mumbai police commissioner made the headlines for a good part of the year. In November, Singh was also declared as an ‘absconding accused' by a Mumbai court. He later moved the Supreme Court, declaring himself ‘not absconding'. The top court then gave Singh protection from arrest in connection with inquiries initiated against him by the Maharashtra government.

Sachin Vaze had earlier been suspended in 2004. File Pic

6. Sachin Vaze: On February 25, a green-coloured Scorpio was found parked near Antilia, the residence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani. Upon investigation, the abandoned vehicle was found to contain 20 sticks of explosive gelatin, a set of number plates as well as a threat letter. Encounter specialist assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, who had returned to the police force in 2020 after a 16-year suspension, was given the job to handle the case.

The Scorpio was found to be in the name of car decor businessman Mansukh Hiran. National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe revealed that Hiran knew Vaze from before and had given him keys to the Scorpio car.

The case turned murkier after Hiran's body was fished out of the Mumbra creek in Thane on March 5. In a classic case of the investigator turning out to be the perpetrator, Vaze was accused of murdering Hiran and planting the SUV outside the Ambani residence. The NIA arrested the police officer and he was once again suspended from the force on March 13.

Raj Kundra allegedly threatened actors to do porn films. File Pic

7. Raj Kundra: Shilpa Shetty's husband and businessman Raj Kundra was arrested on July 19 in connection with cases relating to allegedly making and distributing pornographic content via subscription-based apps like HotHit movies and Hotshots, and was granted bail by a Mumbai court on September 20.

Investigation revealed the Hotshots app was developed by Armsprime Media Private Limited, a firm founded by Kundra in 2019. Armsprime later sold Hotshots to Kenrin Limited, a UK-based firm, owned by Kundra's brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi. Accounts of witnesses and complainants revealed that the accused also threatened actors, who hoped for a big break in films or web series, to get them to comply. Actor Gehana Vasisth, director Tanvir Hashmi and Umesh Kamat, a representative with UK-based production company Kenrin Limited, which owns HotShots app, were also arrested in connection with the case.

On December 15, the Supreme Court granted Kundra four-week protection from arrest.

Munawar Faruqui was arrested in January this year for allegedly making objectionable remarks against deities. Illustration/ Uday Mohite

8. Munawar Faruqui: On November 28, stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui posted on social media that he is quitting comedy. This came after his scheduled show ‘Dongri to Nowhere' was cancelled in Bengaluru amid protest by Right-wing outfits who alleged that the artist had hurt Hindu sentiments in one of his previous shows. Before this, his shows in Mumbai and Gujarat were also cancelled amid vandalism threats by fringe groups. Faruqui was also arrested on January 1 for allegedly making objectionable remarks about Hindu deities and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during one of his shows in Indore. The turbulent year though seemed to end well for the stand-up artiste, who, along with fellow comedian Kunal Kamra, was invited by Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to perform shows Hyderabad and Bhopal. On December 18, Faruqui performed at a show in Mumbai, which was facilitated by the All India Professionals' Congress of Maharashtra, his first event after 16 cancellations.

Father Stan Swamy suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away in July this year. Pic/ PTI

9. Stan Swamy: The 84-year-old tribal rights activist and Jesuit priest, accused of being involved in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, was the oldest person in India slapped with the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and jailed since October 2020. The year started off with the intellectual finally receiving his straw and sipper, denial of which led to a furor last year. Swamy suffered from Parkinson's disease and suffered from hearing loss in both ears.

Due to his ailments, he had applied for medical bail last year, which was rejected by the NIA court.

On May 28, 2021, the Bombay High Court came to the activist's rescue and he was shifted to a private hospital for 15 days. Even when the octogenarian tested positive for Covid-19, he moved HC against some sections of the UAPA. Swamy, however, suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away in a Mumbai hospital on July 5, the same day when his interim bail plea was scheduled to be heard.

Civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal (second from right) and standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav (second from left) at the BMC head office during a presentation of the budget. Pic/Bipin Kokate

10. Iqbal Singh Chahal: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief was appreciated this year for his effective handling of the Covid-19 crisis in Mumbai. On March 16, Chahal was also awarded the ‘Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year 2021 Award' by Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and lauded by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri for "right approach and judicious use of resources". The BMC chief was also in the news for putting a stay on the scheme of distributing food trucks by corporators.