Mumbai: Narcotics Cell Bureau Mumbai Zonal Chief Sameer Wankhende’s tenure will end on December 31. As per the statement issued by the NCB, it is seen that Wankhende will not get any extension either.
During his tenure, he arrested 96 people and registered 28 cases between August-December 20. In 2021, he arrested 234 people, registered 117 cases, seized over 1791 kg drugs worth Rs 1000 crore, and froze properties over Rs 11 crore.
Wankhede was on a deputation to the NCB since September 2020 and in his stint, Wankhede took steps to bust the alleged Bollywood drugs syndicate. Starting with actor Rhea Chakraborty, the NCB under Sameer Wankhede interrogated and arrested several Bollywood personalities regarding their involvement in drugs.
Before his NCB posting, Sameer Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, was posted with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. In his previous roles too, he was known as a taskmaster. In 2011, when Wankhede was with the customs, he had stopped Shah Rukh Khan at the airport and fined him ₹1.5 lakh for carrying excess luggage.
This year in October, a team led by Wankhede allegedly recovered drugs during a raid on Cordelia’s cruise ship off the Mumbai coast and arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan along with other people.
Later, questions were raised about the credentials of independent witnesses used by the NCB during the raid, and it was also alleged that there was an attempt to extort money from Shah Rukh Khan by NCB officials.
After these allegations, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik started targeting Wankhede.
In a series of press conferences, the NCP leader claimed that the NCB officer was born a Muslim but got his job in the Scheduled Castes quota by obtaining a bogus caste certificate.
Wankhede denied the allegation and his father filed a defamation suit against Malik.
On December 10, the NCP spokesperson tendered an unconditional apology in the Bombay High Court for “wilfully breaching” his undertaking to the court to refrain from making any statements against Wankhede and his family.
There is no clarity where he would be posted once his NCB deputation ends.
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