India, March 25 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to rely on the arrest memo of the 2021 Cordelia cruise drugs bust and purported WhatsApp chats between Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials, while hearing a plea filed by former Mumbai zonal director of the agency, Sameer Wankhede, to quash the Rs.25-crore extortion case against him and some others.

Flagging delays in the challenges raised by Wankhede, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam said that such disputed material cannot be examined at this stage.

Acting on a specific tip-off, a team of NCB officials, headed by Wankhede, had on October 2, 2021, searched certain passengers scheduled to take the Cordelia cruise ship from Mumbai...