Gyaneshwar Singh, the NCB’s Deputy Director-General for the Northern Region, said today that the agency’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede’s statement is recorded as part of the departmental vigilance inquiry into charges of extortion in the drugs-on-cruise case, which arrived in Mumbai in the morning, has begun its investigation and collected some documents and recordings from the NCB office in Ballard Estate in south Mumbai. “All of the material witnesses in the investigation will be asked to give testimony, and I will not mention any names,” Mr. Singh added.
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When asked if Sameer Wankhede will continue investigating the cruise narcotics seizure case, Mr. Singh replied he wouldn’t make any remarks about it because he isn’t directly involved. But, according to the official, he is in Mumbai for a vigilance investigation. The NCB has ordered a vigilance investigation into claims made by a witness, Prabhakar Sail, in the cruise drugs case that some agency officials, including its Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, offered an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore to let Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, go free.
Gyaneshwar Singh, also the federal anti-narcotics agency’s top vigilance officer, is leading the investigation. When Mr. Singh arrived at the NCB’s headquarters, he was greeted by a big crowd of journalists. On Tuesday, Sameer Wankhede, the chief investigator in the cruise narcotics case, paid a two-hour visit to the NCB’s headquarters in New Delhi. According to previous reports, the investigation will look into KP Gosavi, another NCB independent witness in the case, being close to Aryan Khan after the raids.
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On social media and other news outlets, photos and videos of Gosavi with Aryan Khan have gone viral. According to them, the involvement of all officers and witnesses engaged in the case will be investigated, and it will be determined if they followed the NCB manual and procedures outlined in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act during such operations. On Sunday, Sameer Wankhede wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale, requesting protection against any legal action “being plotted” against him by unknown parties in connection with a purported vigilance-related matter.
