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TO THOSE who know him, it’s no shock that Sameer Wankhede is on the centre of each the high-profile Rhea Chakraborty allegations of final 12 months and the still-unfolding drug bust case in opposition to Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan. The 2008-batch IRS officer, with stints within the NIA and Directorate of Income Intelligence (DRI), earlier than being loaned to the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) as Director, Mumbai Zone, isn’t any stranger to controversy — or celebrities.
Throughout his stint as a Customs officer at Mumbai worldwide airport, amongst these he had taken motion in opposition to was Shah Rukh, who was fined Rs 1.5 lakh obligation. On the Customs and later the Service Tax Division, he crossed paths with Anurag Kashyap, Vivek Oberoi, Mika Singh and Ram Gopal Verma.
Sources say Wankhede, the son of a police officer, was particularly introduced in within the wake of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s loss of life and the cascading allegations in opposition to his girlfriend Chakraborty, as a consequence of his work on drug seizures on the DRI.
After Wankhede took over, the inconspicuous NCB workplace in south Mumbai grew to become the buzzing coronary heart of the town, with celebrities lined up for questioning within the Chakraborty case. Many questioned how media would know exactly when a star would arrive.
Questions have been additionally raised in regards to the NCB’s focus now on circumstances involving small drug portions however high-profile accused. As per knowledge offered by the NCB to The Sunday Categorical, of the 30 circumstances it registered from September 2020 — when Wankhede took over — to February 2021, in a minimum of 12, the quantity seized was “small” — as in comparison with “intermediate” or “massive” seizures.
The NCB, a Central anti-narcotic company, went after even circumstances of consumption. Stated an officer of the Mumbai Police: “Even our constables hardly do consumption circumstances.” Previous to Wankhede becoming a member of, a majority of the NCB Mumbai Zone operations have been associated to raiding factories producing mephedrone.
In an interview to The Indian Categorical in February, Wankhede had mentioned their technique was to nip medicine in any respect ranges. “Concerning shoppers, is consuming authorized within the nation?… There’s Part 27 of the NDPS Act… Anyone violating the Act, we’re taking motion.”
Within the Chakraborty case, there have been different query marks too. A kind of arrested, Kshitij Prasad, related to Dharmatic Productions, instructed the court docket that Wankhede had instructed him to implicate his boss Karan Johar, if he wished to be let off. Wankhede denied these allegations.
Prasad and Chakraborty are at present out on bail.
To be truthful to the officer, as soon as the Chakraborty case was behind him, NCB operations helped neutralise a number of huge gangs. One clue of how busy Wankhede has been is simply the numbers — the FIR in opposition to Aryan and others was the 94th registered by the NCB in Mumbai and Goa (which additionally comes beneath the Mumbai Zone) in 2021; in opposition to 35 in 2019; 25 in 2018.
In August this 12 months, Wankhede and his workforce obtained the Residence Minister’s medal for “excellence in investigation”.
Even his bitter critics concede that Wankhede immediately has some of the enviable networks of informants and has dealt a significant blow to the narcotics community in Mumbai and Goa.
NCB chief Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was by the way arrested by the NCB in reference to a narcotics case earlier this 12 months, and obtained bail final month, after round six months.
Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant says the NCB beneath Wankhede is “doing the work of the BJP authorities”.
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