Cruise ship drugs case: NCB witness Prabhakar Sail dies of heart attack

Prabhakar Sail. File pic

Prabhakar Sail, Narcotics Control Bureau's panch witness in the high-profile Cordelia Cruise drug case, died of a heart attack on Friday evening. He was living in Mahul village and was rushed to Chandra Hospital after he complained of chest pain. He died during treatment. While the RCF has registered an accidental death report, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who termed the development as "shocking", has ordered a probe into the death through the Director General of Police.

"He was brought to the hospital at around 2.30 pm on April 1 by a woman. After checking his ECG, we advised him to get admitted," Dr Afshaar Khan, who treated Sail, told mid-day. "While we were connecting the monitor to his body, the elevations in his ECG increased; we immediately began performing thrombolysis [a treatment to dissolve dangerous clots in blood vessels]. But, he suffered a heart attack within 10 minutes," he added. His wife, Pooja, who is currently residing in Andheri, said, "He had called our elder daughter on Wednesday and sounded happy and calm. Tushar Khandare, advocate of Sail, however, said that Sail was "not getting any job offers after the case".

Meanwhile, the police have collected CCTV footage from the hospital premises. The statement of the woman who brought him to the hospital is also being recorded. The police is also going through his social media and call records. Sail was the bodyguard of another panch witness KP Gosavi and had made serious allegations against former NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede through a notarised affidavit.