Sameer Wankhede says NCB officer humiliated him over caste, used CBI to get ‘Aryan Khan off the hook’

Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Friday accused the agency’s deputy director, Gyaneshwar Singh, of harassing him over his caste during an inquiry.

Sameer Wankhede alleged that Gyaneshwar Singh used the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against him to help Aryan Khan “get off the hook” in connection with the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

Sameer Wankhede, who belongs to a backward community, was summoned for questioning by the CBI on Thursday in connection with the alleged demand of Rs 25 crore from Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the drug bust case. However, Wankhede did not appear for questioning.

Sameer Wankhede told news agency PTI, alleging the treatment meted to him by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and the Mumbai Police.

A first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI has named Wankhede, along with four others, in the cruise drug bust case. The FIR is based on the report by Gyaneshwar Singh, who headed a Special Enquiry Team (SET).

“The FIR was registered against me only because I had lodged a complaint against Singh with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes,” Sameer Wankhede said.

“I had filed a complaint with the SC Commission in Delhi, seeking an FIR against Singh for using abusive language against me as I was from a backward community,” he added.

Sameer Wankhede stated he approached the CAT against the report prepared by Gyaneshwar Singh.

He said he sought to file an FIR against Gyaneshwar Singh in August last year at Goregaon Police Station in Mumbai under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, no case has been registered in the case so far.

Wankhede claimed he had taken Aryan Khan into custody on the instructions of his superiors in the drug-bust case and said he used to inform them about the investigation in the matter.

SAMEER WANKHEDE’S PLEA IN BOMBAY HC
Sameer Wankhede has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against the CBI’s FIR filed against him. Advocate Rizwan Merchant filed the plea. The matter is expected to be heard at 2:30 pm on Friday.

The petition seeks no coercive action against Wankhede and the reply of the CBI. The case was mentioned before a vacation bench of Justice Sharmila Deshmukh and Justice Arif Doctor.