New Delhi, November 5
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Friday issued an order to remove its controversial Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede as the lead investigator in the cruise drugs seizure case, in which Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan is an accused.
Wankhede has been in the thick of controversy amid allegations of forging documents for job, bribery, extortion and an ‘expensive’ lifestyle since the cruise drug seizure case came to light.
Officials in the NCB said an order taking Wankhede off the cruise drug seizure probe has already been issued and along with this four other high-profile cases are also going to be transferred from the anti-drug agency’s Mumbai zonal unit to its Central team.
They said, the action has been taken on “administrative grounds”, and as these five cases have “wider and inter-state ramifications”, they have been transferred to the operations unit in Delhi and the order regarding transfer of these cases has been issued by NCB Director-General (DG) S N Pradhan.
Meanwhile, Wankhede refuted reports that he has been removed from investigation in the case. Media reports from Mumbai quoted him saying that “the move is about coordination between NCB teams of Mumbai and Delhi”.
Sources in the NCB said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed to probe these transferred cases. Apart from the Aryan Khan case, the one involving Bollywood actor Armaan Kohli, who was arrested by the NCB on August 28 after he was allegedly found in possession of 1.3 gm of cocaine, has also been transferred to the SIT.
Now, the probe will be handled by Senior IPS officer Sanjay Singh, who is the Deputy Director-General (Operations), sources said, adding that his team of investigators is likely to reach Mumbai on Saturday to take over the probe.
The NCB had arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and at least 19 others in the drugs on cruise case on the intervening night of October 2-3.
Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has been making a series of allegations against Wankhede, from forging documents to get a government job to lying about his religion to carrying out “bogus” drug raids. The IRS officer has so far denied all these allegations.
The NCB has ordered a vigilance inquiry into allegations made by a witness in the case of an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by some agency officials, including Wankhede, and others for letting Khan off the case. The departmental vigilance probe is being conducted by NCB Deputy Director-General (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh.
Stepping up his attack on Wankhede, Malik had also accused him of extorting crores and wearing “expensive” clothes beyond the reach of an honest and upright officer. Malik claimed the officer wore a trouser worth Rs 1 lakh, a shirt costing over Rs 70,000 and watches worth Rs 25 lakh to 50 lakh.
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