The Pune Police arrested Kiran Gosavi, a witness of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the Mumbai cruise ship drugs case, from Katraj area of the city in the early hours of Thursday in connection with a cheating case of Rs 18 lakh.

Amitabh Gupta, Pune City Police Commissioner said, “Kiran Gosavi was arrested from Katraj area of Pune city at around 3 am after several teams were formed to nab to him.”

The police commissioner said that Gosavi was hiding in different cities like Fatehpur, Jabalpur, Hyderabad, Jalgaon and many other locations using an alias of one Sachin Patil.

“After tracking for a long time, Gosavi was arrested from the area. He did not surrender before the police, but we arrested him,” said Gupta.

The police said, “According to prima facie, he was using the name of Sachin Patil when he was staying at different locations. According to him, he used this name when he was staying at different NGOs and other organisations. He reportedly introduced himself as a businessman, dealing in the export and import of metals. However, we are yet to ascertain his claims. More details will be revealed on further investigation.”

Furthermore, Gupta said that enforcement agencies have been contacted to handover Gosavi’s custody.

“I have not received calls or requests from the Mumbai police. If they contact us then we will surely cooperate with him,” adding that he has not spoken to NCB officials in this regard.

Gosavi, a key witness in the Mumbai cruise drugs case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan has been arrested, has allegedly been involved in the cheating case of Rs 18 lakh in the year 2018.

He had duped one Chinmay Deshmukh, promising to give job in Malaysia and collected Rs 18 lakh. Deshmukh was sent on a tourist visa to Malaysia and according to the complainant (Deshmukh), Gosavi had assured him that the tourist visa would be converted once he lands in Malaysia. But he had to return to India before the expiry of the tourist visa.

Deshmukh had filed a complaint against Gosavi in 2019 and a chargesheet was filed in the case. Since then he was on the run.