Troubles mount for Sameer Wankhede, ED registers case money-laundering case against him

Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede outside High Court last year in May. File pic

IRS officer Sameer Wankhede's troubles just increased. After the CBI, now the ED has registered a money-laundering case against him. The former zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Sameer Wankhede, has been accused of demanding a Rs 25-crore bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan, for not framing his son Aryan Khan in a drug case in October 2021.

Sources said ED may soon summon Wankhede for questioning in the case. However, Sameer Wankhede released a statement stating, "ED had registered the said ECIR in 2023. It is surprising that this ECIR is based on the CBI FIR which is already under question before the Bombay HC. Since the matter is subjudice, I don't intend to comment anything further. I will give the appropriate reply in the court at the appropriate time. I reiterate that I have full faith in the Indian Judiciary. Satyamev Jayate," said Wankhede in his statement.

Sameer Wankhede

Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre, has now moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection from any coercive action by the anti-money laundering agency.

The much-hyped case took a twist when an independent witness claimed in 2021 that an NCB official had demanded Rs 25 crore in exchange for letting Aryan Khan go scot-free. The NCB's Vigilance Department later conducted a probe against Wankhede and others named in the allegations and shared the results of their inquiry with the CBI. Based on this, the CBI had booked Wankhede last year on charges of criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion under the Indian Penal Code, besides provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He was also questioned several times by the central agency over his handling of Aryan Khan's arrest.

Wankhede, on his part, has claimed that he is being punished for being a patriot. On October 2, 2021, Wankhede and his team had raided the Cordelia Cruise liner in Mumbai and arrested Aryan, among others, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A year later, the NCB filed a charge sheet in the case against 14 accused, but dropped Aryan's name from it, leading to major embarrassment for the central anti-drug agency.