Sameer Wankhede Accuses Senior NCB Official of Humiliating Him Over Caste

Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede has alleged that then Deputy Director of the NCB Gyaneshwar Singh humiliated and harassed him during an inquiry as Wankhede belongs to a backward community.

The CBI had summoned Wankhede for questioning in Mumbai on Thursday in connection with alleged demand of Rs 25 crore from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case, but Wankhede did not appear before the agency’s team.

Talking to PTI over the phone on Thursday, the Indian Revenue Service officer said he had complained against the treatment meted out to him to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes as well as the Mumbai Police.

Wankhede has been named in a first information report (FIR) filed by the CBI along with four others in connection with the cruise drug bust case.

The FIR is based on the report of the then Deputy Director of NCB Gyaneshwar Singh, who headed a Special Enquiry Team (SET).

“The FIR was registered against me only because I had lodged a complaint against Singh with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes,” said Wankhede.

“I had filed a complaint with the SC Commission in Delhi, seeking an FIR against Singh for using abusive language against me as I was from a backward community,” he said.

According to him, he had approached the CAT against the report prepared by Singh.

He had also approached the Goregaon Police Station in Mumbai in August 2022 seeking an FIR against Singh under the SC-ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he said.

No FIR has been registered in this case, though.

Singh used the CBI against him to help Aryan Khan get off the hook in the drug case, Wankhede alleged.

He also claimed that he had always kept his superiors in the loop about the investigation into the alleged drug seizure from Cordelia, and put Aryan Khan under custody only on their instructions.

Gyaneshwar Singh did not respond to the calls and messages for obtaining his reaction.