Thane collector Rajesh Narvekar on Tuesday cancelled the licence granted to Sadguru hotel & bar in Navi Mumbai, owned by Sameer Wankhede, on the grounds that the former NCB Mumbai zonal director misrepresented his age in the licence application filed in 1997.
Narvekar, after hearing the Thane excise commissioner and Wankhede’s counsel, cancelled the licence of the hotel which was granted permission to sell wine, mild liquors, spirits and fermented liquors, the Times of India reported.
The collector has invoked Section 54 of the Prohibition Act for cancelling the bar licence.
The issue came to light when NCP minister Nawab Malik, who has had regular run-ins with Wankhede, took up the matter with Director General, NCB, CVC and state excise commissioner. Malik questioned if a member of the all-India services could carry on his own business and how Wankhede had procured the licence though he was underage on the day he was granted the permit.
Wankhede had then admitted he had obtained the licence much before he had joined the IRS.
Wankhede has been fighting allegations made by Malik that he forged his caste certificate and other documents to secure a job as an IRS officer under the SC quota after clearing the Union Public Service Commission examination.
Malik also alleged that Wankhede, who led the probe in the Mumbai drugs bust case in which actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was arrested, is Muslim by birth.
Wankhede, who has been the key investigator in important cases ranging from Indian youth training in Syria under the Islamic State to murders of political workers in Gujarat, was hired by the NCB after the agency noticed his investigation in terror-related cases. The officer was repatriated in January amid major allegations including corruption, extravagant lifestyle and caste certificate fraud.
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