The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) may transfer to a new officer the Mumbai cruise drugs case involving Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan amid a vigilance inquiry being ordered against top officer Sameer Wankhede, who has been at the receiving end of ire of several politicians, especially Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.
Top NCB sources told News18 that the issue of Wankhede as probe officer in the Aryan Khan case came up during a meeting of top agency officials on Monday.
The officials were of the view that since a vigilance inquiry has been ordered against Wankhede, it’s not correct for him to further probe the matter. The agency will take the final call after CVO Gyaneshwar Singh’s visit to Mumbai on Wednesday but the top brass is considering a change.
The NCB on Monday ordered a vigilance inquiry into the claims made by a witness in the cruise drugs case of an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by some agency officials, including its Mumbai zonal director Wankhede, and others for letting off accused Aryan Khan.
Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise drugs case, had on Sunday claimed in an affidavit and in subsequent interactions with reporters in Mumbai that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and some other people linked to the case to let off Aryan Khan from this investigation.
Sail said he was the bodyguard of another witness in this case, KP Gosavi, who is absconding after the NCB raids that were conducted on October 3 at the cruise terminal on Mumbai’s coast leading to the arrest of as many as 20 people, including Khan.
Sail also claimed that he saw Gosavi meeting Shah Rukh Khan’s manager and that he was asked to sign “9-10 blank pages” in the presence of Wankhede after the cruise raids. “We have received the affidavit and a report from our DDG (south-west region) based in Mumbai and the NCB director general has taken cognisance of this report. He has marked it to the vigilance section for inquiry.
“We are a professional organisation and we are open for inquiry against any allegation against our staffers. The inquiry will be transparent and fair,” Gyaneshwar Singh told PTI. Asked if Wankhede will continue to probe the cruise case till this inquiry goes on, Singh said the question was “premature and we will take a call as the inquiry progresses and evidences are gathered.”
Officials said the NCB inquiry will look at all aspects of the claims made by Sail and will also record the version of Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) of 2008 batch Customs cadre, and other officers of the Mumbai zonal unit involved in this drugs bust case.
Wankhede has denied the allegations being made against him in this case. The officer on Sunday also wrote to Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale, seeking protection from likely legal action “being planned” against him by unknown persons to falsely frame him concerning an alleged vigilance related issue.
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