hear the news
Former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede has been transferred. Wankhede has been transferred from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai to Directorate of DG Taxpayer Service, Chennai.
Earlier he was part of the investigation of the drugs-on-cruise case in Mumbai. Former zonal director of the central agency Sameer Wankhede had once again come into the limelight after the NCB gave clean chit to Aryan Khan and five others on Friday. Aryan and 20 others were arrested during the campaign led by Wankhede.
Indian Revenue Service officer Wankhede was often in news from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) till his posting in NCB in September 2020. He was part of the investigation team that probed a drug case involving the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Rajput allegedly committed suicide in his flat in June 2020.
As part of the probe, the agency had questioned Bollywood actresses Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh and others. With Bollywood stars coming for questioning at the NCB offices in Mumbai, Wankhede often interacted with media persons regarding the investigation. During his tenure as Zonal Director, NCB took action against several drug smugglers in Mumbai and Goa and seized drugs worth crores of rupees.
The Wankhede team also arrested Sameer Khan, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party and son-in-law of Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, in a drug seizure case. But later a court granted bail to Sameer Khan, saying there was insufficient evidence against him, following which Malik leveled the corruption charges against Wankhede.
A team led by Wankhede raided the Cordelia cruise ship at the Mumbai International Port Terminal on October 2, 2021 and arrested over 20 people, including Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, for allegedly possessing drugs and intoxicants. . After Aryan Khan’s arrest, his photographs with independent witness Kiran Gosavi went viral on social media, raising questions about the role of such witnesses during the raid.
Things got worse when another independent witness, Manish Bhanushali, was found to be a member of the BJP, raising question marks about the NCB witnesses. Days after the raid, witness Prabhakar Sail claimed in an affidavit that he had overheard talks of Wankhede demanding Rs 25 crore in return for releasing Aryan Khan.
Sail, who was Kiran Gosavi’s bodyguard, had also alleged that he was made to sign a blank panchnama. Sal died of a heart attack this year. Soon after, a Special Investigation Team, headed by Deputy Director General of NCB Dnyaneshwar Singh, was constituted to probe the allegations against Wankhede and others. The case was handed over to the Special Investigation Team headed by NCB Deputy Director General (Operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh. Earlier, the Special Investigation Team recorded Wankhede’s statement.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court, while granting bail to Aryan Khan on 28 October 2021, said that there was no evidence that Aryan, along with his friends Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, committed an offense under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Conspired. Nawab Malik then leveled allegations against Wankhede that he gave false SC certificate to get the job of IRS officer.
Along with the Mumbai Police, the state’s social justice department launched a probe into the veracity of his caste certificate. Malik also told that Wankhede has a restaurant and bar in Navi Mumbai. An FIR was registered against Wankhede at Kopri police station in Thane on a complaint by the state excise department. The complaint states that Wankhede posed as an adult in 1996-97 to obtain a license for the Sadguru Hotel when he was underage at that time.
Wankhede’s tenure with NCB ended on 31 December 2021 amid controversies and he was transferred to DRI.