New Delhi: Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede, who has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly searching for a Rs 25 crore bribe for not framing Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan within the drugs-on-cruise case, on Saturday mentioned that he’s being ‘rewarded for being a patriot’.
The 2008-batch IRS officer additionally reacted to the search operation performed at his residence and mentioned that the property recovered by the CBI have been acquired earlier than he joined the service.Â
“I am getting rewarded for being a patriot, yesterday 18 CBI officials raided my residence and searched it for more than 12 hours while my wife and children were present in the house. They found Rs 23,000 and four property papers. These assets were acquired before I joined the service,” the information company ANI quoted Sameer Wankhede as saying.
FIR towards Sameer Wankhade
The CBI has booked Sameer Wankhede for alleged felony conspiracy (120-B IPC), and menace of extortion (388 IPC) moreover provisions pertaining to bribery underneath the Prevention of Corruption Act on a criticism from the NCB.
The investigating company additionally performed a coordinated search operation on Friday at 29 places in Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow, Guwahati and Chennai after submitting the FIR towards Wankhede and 4 others — then NCB Superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh, Intelligence Officer Ashish Ranjan and two personal individuals KP Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza — within the Aryan Khan medication case.
Aryan was arrested within the alleged drug bust case on a cruise ship in October 2021.
“It has been alleged that the said officials of the Narcotics Control Bureau of Mumbai Zone, in order to obtain undue advantage from the persons and others in Case No. 94/2021… Registered and investigated under the supervision of then Zonal Director of Mumbai Zone of NCB, had entered into a criminal conspiracy with others and allegedly obtained an undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused…”, the information company PTI quoted a CBI spokesperson as saying.
The CBI alleged the NCB, Mumbai Zone had acquired info in October 2021 associated to the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by numerous people on a personal cruise ship.
“It has also been alleged that the said persons entered into a conspiracy in order to extort an amount of Rs 25 crore (approx) from family members of the alleged accused of case No. 94/2021 of NCB, Mumbai, by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of narcotics substances as per the alleged directions of then zonal director (Wankhede) being the supervisory officer,” he mentioned.
A token quantity of Rs 50 lakh as a bribe was allegedly obtained in furtherance of this conspiracy by the mentioned individuals, he mentioned.
Wankhede and different officers via “improper and dishonest performance” of obligation, by “corrupt and illegal means” and “exercise of personal influence” demanded a bribe from the suspect within the case registered by the NCB, the CBI FIR has alleged. The accused officer was on the helm of the Cordelia ship probe until November 2021 when a Special Investigation Team of the NCB took over the investigation.
Aryan Khan was arrested by NCB in October 2021
Aryan Khan, who was formally arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28, 2021, after spending 25 days in jail. The NCB on May 27, 2022, additionally filed a 6,000-page cost sheet towards 14 accused, giving a clear chit to Aryan Khan.
NCB officers mentioned Aryan and 5 others weren’t named within the company’s cost sheet on account of a “lack of sufficient evidence”.
Besides the NCB, the SIT discovered “grave irregularities” and gaps within the probe, the officers mentioned, including that the central company’s first staff that arrested Aryan didn’t observe guidelines like a compulsory medical check of the accused, video recording of the raids and corroborate proof for WhatsApp chats.
NCB Director General S N Pradhan had informed reporters in Delhi that there have been “shortcomings” within the investigation and the WhatsApp chat of the accused had no “physical corroborative evidence” as required to show the costs within the court docket.
Wankhede, who headed the Narcotics Control Bureau Zonal Unit in Mumbai on the time of Aryan Khan’s arrest, was transferred to the DG Taxpayer Service Directorate in Chennai in May final yr.
The much-hyped case took a twist when an ‘impartial witness’ had claimed in 2021 that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and different individuals, together with a witness Gosavi, to let off Aryan Khan.
Prabhakar Sail, the ‘impartial witness’, now deceased, had informed media individuals that he had overheard Gosavi telling D’Souza over the telephone in regards to the demand of Rs 25 crore after Aryan Khan was delivered to the NCB workplace after the October 2 raid.
He additionally claimed NCB officers had requested him to signal 9 to 10 clean papers. However, a senior NCB official had denied the allegations, terming them as “completely false and malicious”.
(With company inputs)
