NCB begins probe in allegations against their own officer Sameer Wankhede

New Delhi, October 26

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has started probing allegations of Rs. 25 crore extortion racket against Mumbai zonal director, Sameer Wankhede.

The vigilance inquiry is headed by NCB’s deputy director general (DDG) of northern region, Gyaneshwar Singh who is probing the charges levelled by one of the agency’s own witnesses in the drug case.

The developments came on a day a Mumbai court refused NCB’s plea to dismiss Sail’s affidavit, and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik accused Wankhede of forging his personal documents, which was denied by Wankhede.

On October 2, Wankhede led an NCB raid on the cruise ship Cordelia, docked at Mumbai’s International Cruise Terminal, to bust a rave party. The next day, the agency arrested Aryan Khan and charged the 23-year-old with alleged consumption and conspiracy under the stringent Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Aryan is currently in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail.

As per NCB's investigation, 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of Charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy), and ₹1.33 lakh in cash were recovered from the ship. Since then, 20 people, including Delhi-based event management professionals, Nigerian nationals, and Mumbai-based drug peddlers, have been arrested under various sections of the NDPS Act. 

The NCB teams visited Shah Rukh Khan’s house and also summoned actor Ananya Panday for questioning after her name showed up in Aryan’s WhatsApp conversations.

The independent witness in the case, Prabhakar Sail,  claimed in an affidavit that the investigators made him sign blank sheets of paper.

Wankhede also filed an affidavit categorically denying the allegations and claiming that the charges were “not only false but misleading, mischievous and maligning.”

Wankhede is also facing allegations of using a fake schedule caste certificate. Malik recenty Wankhede of using a fake caste certificate to get government job under reserved quota. Malik – who has previously accused the officer of travelling to Maldives and Dubai to extort money from actors – said Wankhede is Muslim but made a fake scheduled caste certificate. 

Malik earlier claimed that Wankhede was shifted to the NCB days after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020 to harass Bollywood actors – a charge denied by the officer. Wankhede led the NCB investigation after Rajput’s alleged suicide and questioned several Bollywood actors.

State home minister Dilip Walse Patil recently held a meeting with Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray about the issue. While Maha Aghadi has been demanding for setifng up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) the BJP has been backing the demand for CBI ti take over the investigations.