The Director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has removed IRS officer Sameer Wankhede as the supervisory officer in six cases including those against Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan, actor Armaan Kholi and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan. These cases have now been transferred from the Mumbai unit to its operations unit in Delhi, sources said
These sources added Wankhede will continue to remain the Mumbai zonal head of the federal drug law enforcement and intelligence agency. The transfer of cases effectively means that these cases will no longer be probed by the Mumbai unit headed by Wankehde.
Wankhede is facing a vigilance inquiry after a witness in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Aryan was arrested alleged extortion bid by NCB officers including its zonal chief. In an affidavit, a panch witness, Prabhakar Sail of the said case had alleged an extortion bid of Rs 25 crores by some agency officials, including Wankhede, to let off Khan.
When reached for a comment Wankhede refused to comment.
However sources close to the officer told ET that he had made a similar plea in his petition before the Bombay High Court while seeking transfer of the drugs-on-cruise case to another federal agency including the NIA or CBI. “He was never the investigating officer of the case and his role was that of the supervising officer. Now since six cases have been transferred to the operational unit, if they need any assistance they have to write to the Mumbai zonal chief,” said a source close to Wankhede.
ET had earlier reported on the cracks surfacing within the agency as sources indicated that Wankhede allegedly kept his seniors in dark ‘on the point of no recovery was made from Aryan Khan during the raid on the cruiser liner on the night of October 2.
“The initial impression given out by the team headed by Wankhede was that there was drugs recovered from Khan which subsequently was clarified to the top brass that the drug was recovered from his friend Arbaaz Merchant who was travelling along with him, concealed in his shoe and was meant to be consumed by both on the ship,” a senior official privy to the development told ET.
Official familiar with the development added that Wankhede wanted to raid Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan bungalow, Mannant but NCB headquarters declined the permission due to lack of evidence. The top brass which initially supported Wankhede, distanced itself from the probe as procedural lapses started surfacing on the social media causing embarrassment to the federal anti-drug agency.
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