Sameer Wankhede, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer leading the probe into the Mumbai cruise drugs case that involves Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan on Monday alleged “vendetta” as he slammed Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik’s repeated attacks on his character and family.
Wankhede, in an affidavit in a Mumbai court, said the “defamatory insinuations” made against him were not only false but “misleading, mischievous and maligning”.
The officers statement came after Malik — who has been a vocal critic of the anti-drugs agency and its inquiries into Aryan Khan — tweeted a photo of a document related to Wankhede’s birth and claimed, “the forgery began from here”.
Among other claims, Nawab Malik has also alleged Sameer Wankhede was in the Maldives during the lockdown and that he was targeting Bollywood personalities for an extortion racket.
Responding to the attacks by Malik, Wankhede said the only justification he could think of was one Sameer Khan, related to the minister, was arrested in a drug case under the NDPS Act and since then, “there is a series of personal vengeance” against the officer and his family.
He added: “I am under a lurking threat of arrest as it does not suit some vested interest for conducting an honest and impartial investigation. I am ready to face all that is contemplated in law which would unequivocally establish my innocence… This court may pass appropriate orders to preserve and protect the sanctity of an unbiased and fair investigation.”
In mounting troubles for Wankhede, who has taken on the Bollywood drug nexus since actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his home, on Sunday a witness claimed that the probe agency had asked him to sign blank papers and that there was a demand of Rs 25 crore bribe to let off Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan‘s son Aryan, an allegation that was rubbished by the NCB.
Prabhakar Sail (40), a driver of absconding alleged private investigator KP Gosavi, whose selfie with Aryan Khan went viral, claimed that he is a personal bodyguard to Gosavi. In a purported video, Prabhakar claimed that he is “scared of Wankhede” and for his life. He also claimed, in the video, that “his signatures were taken on blank papers by the NCB officials”. “There was discussion of a bribe to Sameer Wankhede…I collected Rs 50 lakh in cash,” Prabhakar said in Marathi.
Prabhakar told media persons that he had overheard Gosavi telling one Sam D’Souza over the phone after Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office following the October 3 raid on the Goa-bound ship about a demand of Rs 25 crore and to settle at Rs 18 crore as they “have to give Rs eight crore to Sameer Wankhede”, the zonal director of NCB.
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