New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Former Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal director Sameer Wankhede has been transferred from Mumbai to Chennai. He was a part of the investigation of the drugs-on-cruise case, involving Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who recently got a clean shit from NCB which called his investigation shoddy.
Wankhede who was working as the Mumbai zonal chief of the Narcotics Control Bureau, is being transferred to the Directorate General of Taxpayers Services in Chennai. He was removed from the drugs case after allegations of bribery.
Earlier this week, the government asked the Finance Ministry to take action against Wankhede for his alleged “shoddy work”. Appropriate action is also being initiated against Wankhede for allegedly providing a fake caste certificate.
Aryan Khan was given a clean chit by the Narcotics Control Bureau in the October 2021 ‘drugs-on-cruise’ case on Friday.
Wankhede is an Indian Revenue Service officer and the finance ministry is the nodal authority to take the action against him.
Wankhede was then Mumbai zonal director of the NCB and handled the initial investigation after an anti-drugs raid on a cruise. Aryan was arrested by the NCB on October 3 last year in the case.
He was granted bail on October 28 by the Bombay High Court which dismissed NCB’s arguments and said it can not just rely on WhatsApp messages to make such grave allegations.
On November 6 last year, the NCB headquarters removed Wankhede from the probe and transferred the case from Mumbai to a Delhi-based SIT formed under its deputy director-general (operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh.
Officials of the NCB, which filed its chargesheet in a Mumbai court, said the names of Aryan and five others were not there due to “lack of sufficient evidence”.
After the submission by the NCB, the office of Nawab Malik, a Maharashtra minister, tweeted that “now that #AryanKhan and 5 others get a clean chit. Will #NCB take action against #SameerWankhede his team and the private army? Or will it shield the culprits?.” According to reports, Wankhede is presently posted in the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mumbai.
(With inputs from PTI)