According to official sources, the government has ordered action against former NCB officer Sameer Wankhede for his alleged “shoddy” work while investigating a ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case in which film star Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was jailed last year. They further said that appropriate action is being taken against Wankhede for allegedly submitting a forged caste certificate.
On Friday, the Narcotics Control Bureau cleared Aryan Khan in the October 2021 ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case.
According to sources, the government has ordered that the competent authority take appropriate action against Wankhede for his alleged “shoddy” investigation into the “drugs-on-cruise” case.
Mr Wankhede was accused of falsifying paperwork to obtain a government post by Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik, after which the Narcotics Control Bureau, or NCB, official handed up what he claimed were his genuine caste papers to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in November.
Wankhede was the NCB’s Mumbai zonal director at the time, and he was in charge of the initial investigation following a drug raid on a cruise ship. The NCB detained Aryan in the case on October 3 of last year.
On October 28, the Bombay High Court granted him bail, dismissing NCB’s claims and stating that such serious allegations cannot be made only based on WhatsApp communications.
Wankhede was removed from the investigation on November 6 last year, and the matter was shifted from Mumbai to a Delhi-based SIT led by NCB deputy director-general (operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh.
The names of Aryan and five others were not included in the NCB’s chargesheet, which was filed in a Mumbai court, due to a “lack of solid proof,” according to NCB officials.
Wankhede is currently assigned to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in Mumbai, according to sources.
