The wife of Narcotics Control Bureau Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede on Thursday wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, seeking justice in view of personal attacks on her and her family, reported PTI.
Sameer Wankhede had led the Narcotics Control Bureau raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai’s coast on October 2. Eight people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, remain in custody in the case.
Since the arrests in the case, Wankhede has faced several allegations, most of them levelled by the Nationalist Congress Party.
The party’s leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has claimed that Wankhede used forged documents to get his job under the Scheduled Caste quota and that he has been illegally tapping phones.
Malik has also accused the NCB officer of being part of an extortion racket linked to drug-related cases against Bollywood actors.
In her letter to the chief minister on Thursday, Kranti Wankhede said that being a Marathi, she expects justice from him as her personal life was being dragged into the controversy.
“Had late Balasaheb Thackeray [father of Uddhav Thackeray] been alive today, he would not have tolerated such personal attack on a woman’s dignity,” she said.
She said that a woman’s dignity has become a joke in the ruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government.
“The personal attacks reflect the lowest level of politics,” Kranti Wankhede added. “I trust you and feel that there will be no injustice against me or my family.”
The NCB officer’s wife had earlier criticised Malik for engaging in “low level” politics by making various allegations against her husband.
Sameer Wankhede has denied all the charges and told a Mumbai court that personal allegations were being made against him and his family members.
Police complaint against Nawab Malik
Meanwhile, Sameer Wankhede’s sister, Yasmeen Wankhede, filed a police complaint on Wednesday and sought registration of a first information report against Malik for allegedly defaming her and her family, reported India Today.
“Request to take cognizance of my grievances so as to safeguard my constitutional rights as a woman with a further request to take appropriate steps to deal with the named accused in accordance with law, including issuing the appropriate directions to the concerned Police Station to register CR [FIR] against Mr Nawab Malik,” she wrote in her complaint.
A police official said that Yasmeen Wankhede had claimed her family was being targeted on social media and that Malik had termed her family trip to Maldives a “vasooli [extortion] trip”, reported The Indian Express.
Yasmeen Wankhede said that she was being stalked online and alleged that the minister had distributed her personal photographs to the media, the complaint said.
The NCB officer’s sister has also written to Thackeray. “If Balasaheb was alive today, he would not have agreed with what is happening,” Wankhede said. “Today he is not there but you are around . We see his image in you... I am sure you will never allow injustice to happen to me and my family.”
NCB being used to ‘defame, harass’ people: Minister
Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party Maharastra unit chief Jayant Patil on Thursday claimed that the Narcotics Control Bureau was being used to “harass and defame” citizens, reported PTI.
At an event in Ratnagiri, Patil also said that Malik was “bringing out the truth”. “The central agencies are making mistakes and diverting attention as well,” he claimed. “These agencies are being used to harass common citizens.”
Patil claimed that the Narcotics Control Bureau was harassing people and putting them behind bars for a long time. “This has happened with Aryan Khan and many others,” he claimed. “It has to be probed thoroughly.”
Aryan Khan’s drug case
Aryan Khan and seven others were arrested by a Narcotics Control Bureau team led by Sameer Wankhede after a raid on a cruise party off the coast of Mumbai on October 2.
The agency said it had seized 13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams of mephedrone, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA (ecstasy) and Rs 1.3 lakh from the ship.
Khan has been denied bail in the case. He has filed an appeal before the High Court, which heard the case on Wednesday. The hearing will continue on Thursday.
His lawyers have repeatedly argued in courts that no drugs were found in his possession during the raid.
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