The Mumbai Police on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that it will give three days’ notice to Narcotics Control Bureau Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede before arresting him, Bar and Bench reported.
On Wednesday, the Mumbai Police initiated an investigation into four complaints about Wankhede, accusing him of taking bribes.
The Narcotics Control Bureau officer on Thursday approached the High Court demanding that the investigation against him should be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation or the National Investigation Agency.
A bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and SV Kotwal recorded the police’s assurance and disposed of Wankhede’s petition. The court made it clear that it has not commented on the merits of the case.
One of the complaints against Wankhede has been filed by Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the Mumbai cruise ship drugs case in which Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, is one of the accused.
Sail alleged that he had overheard private investigator Kiran Gosavi, another witness in the case, talk about a Rs 18 crore deal, of which Rs 8 crore was to be paid to Wankhede, who was part of the anti-drugs agency’s raid on the cruise ship.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has claimed that the Narcotics Control Bureau officer used forged documents to get his job under the Scheduled Caste quota and that he has been illegally tapping phones.
Malik has also accused Wankhede of being part of an extortion racket linked to drug-related cases against Bollywood actors.
The NCP leader on Wednesday tweeted a copy of Wankhede’s purported marriage certificate, on which his name is listed as “Sameer Dawood Wankhede”. He alleged that the officer had produced a forged birth certificate to get his job under the Scheduled Caste category.
Amid the controversy, the Narcotics Control Bureau officer’s wife Kranti Wankhede on Thursday wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, seeking justice in view of personal attacks on her and her family.
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