The Mumbai District Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee has summoned Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhede to appear before it on December 14 to join the investigation against him, reported The Hindu on Wednesday.
On November 3, two Dalit organisations – Bhim Army and Swabhimani Republican Paksh – had filed a complaint against Wankhede for allegedly using a fake caste certificate to secure a job. They had urged the Mumbai-based panel to examine the officer’s document.
On Tuesday, the committee allowed the complainants – Bhim Army’s Ashok Kamble and Swabhimani Republican Paksh’s Manoj Sansare – to present their case, reported India Today.
Advocate Nitin Satpute, representing both the complainants, submitted two documents – a copy of Wankhede’s caste certificate issued by the Greater Mumbai executive magistrate and a copy of his birth certificate.
Satpute also submitted a copy of Kamble’s petition in the Bombay High Court. Kamble has challenged Wankhede’s appointment to the Indian Revenue Services under the Schedule Caste quota.
Based on the documents, the committee decided to inquire into the complaint and issued notice to Wankhede.
“The committee told us that Wankhede will be asked to depose before it on December 14,” Kamble said on Wednesday.
The two organisations had sought an investigation into the caste certificate matter days after Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik accused Wankhede of fraud.
Malik had on October 25 tweeted what he claimed was a copy of Wankhede’s birth certificate, which said he was a Muslim. Wankhede’s father, Malik claimed, was born into a Dalit family, but married a Muslim woman, converted to Islam and took the name “Dawood”.
The Nationalist Congress Party leader alleged that Wankhede had produced a forged birth certificate to get his job under the Scheduled Caste category. “As per the law, Dalits who are converted to Islam do not get the quota,” Malik had said.
Malik had also tweeted a purported photo from Wankhede’s first marriage to a Muslim woman named Shabana Qureshi and shared their “nikah nama” or marriage certificate on Twitter. The certificate mentioned the groom’s name as “Sameer Dawood Wankhede”.
On November 1, Wankhede had submitted documents to the National Scheduled Castes Commission to prove that he belongs to the Dalit community. Vijay Sampla, the commission’s chairperson, had said Wankhede’s documents would be verified with the Maharashtra government.
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