‘Picture Abhi Baki hai,’ says the narrator. ‘Interval ke baad batayenge,’ – no, they aren’t trailers for your favourite Hindi movie or web series. These are tweets and sound bytes from Maharashtra’s Mahavikas Aghadi lawmakers, in which they beg the public to wait for the latest round of claims (or disclosures, depending on your point of view) in the Sameer Wankhede-Aryan Khan drug bust scandal. The arrest of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on October 2 has triggered a flurry of legal and political happenings in Maharashtra that are being binge-watched by TV news viewers and Twitterati, almost like a thriller web series. The guy at the centre of it all is, shockingly, not Shah Rukh Khan or his now-free son Aryan; it’s Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Nawab Malik, whose son-in-law Sameer Khan was just released on bail in a narcotics case.
Sameer Wankhede Unlawfully Tapped Phones
Malik’s press conference revealing the identities of Kiran Gosavi and Manish Bhanushali, the panch or spot witnesses in the case, shifted the narrative from one of Bollywood excess to one of legal proceedings and political squabbles. Malik and his followers have maintained a Twitter presence throughout the ordeal, previewing news briefings and revelations and repeating couplets. The BJP has also retaliated with memes and accusations.
For the past month, Malik has held news briefings in the early morning hours practically every day. Also, this being Mumbai and Bollywood is involved, so things become a little filmy,” chuckles Malik, who has experienced significant growth in his Twitter following in the last month. Several layers of Maharashtra’s politics, law enforcement officers, and techniques have unravelled in the last two years as events such as the Mahavikas Aghadi formation and instances like Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and the Antillia bomb scare played out in real-time.
