Today, on February 20, 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conveyed to the Bombay High Court that Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), will not face arrest in a money laundering case until March 1. In May 2023, Sameer Wankhede was implicated by the CBI for allegedly soliciting a Rs 25 crore bribe to refrain from implicating Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, in the cruise drugs case.
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Maharashtra: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed the Bombay High Court Today (20 Feb 2024) that Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), will not be subject to arrest in a money laundering case until March 1.
The division bench of Justices P D Naik and N R Borkar accepted the ED’s statement and scheduled Wankhede’s petition against the case for March 1. Additionally, the bench directed the probe agency to furnish a copy of the ECIR (complaint) on the same date.
Wankhede faces a money laundering case following the ED’s acknowledgment of a first information report (FIR) by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding an alleged Rs 25-crore bribe demand from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan‘s family to spare his son Aryan Khan in a drugs case. Earlier this month, the former NCB officer filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking to annul the ED’s case, accompanied by a request for interim protection from coercive measures and a halt to the agency’s investigation.
Last week, the ED pledged not to arrest Wankhede until February 20 (Tuesday). However, on Tuesday, Sandesh Patil, representing the ED, informed the court that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta would represent the case and requested an adjournment. Patil affirmed to the court,
“My earlier statement of no arrest or coercive action would stand extended till the time the plea is taken up for hearing,”
which the bench accepted, rescheduling the hearing for March 1.
Another petition filed by Wankhede has also been deferred until March 27. This petition, lodged last year, challenges the extortion and bribery case registered against him by the CBI. Wankhede contends that the ED’s case exhibits “malice and vendetta.” He alleges that while the ECIR was registered last year, some NCB officers were summoned only after he filed a complaint against NCB’s deputy director Gyaneshwar Singh.
In January, Wankhede filed a complaint against Singh before a Delhi court, seeking action under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He asserts that Singh, along with influential individuals, has orchestrated agencies, including the CBI, ED, and NCB, to implicate him in a case.
Wankhede was booked by the CBI in May 2023 for purportedly soliciting a Rs 25 crore bribe to refrain from implicating Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the cruise drugs case. He, along with others, was charged under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 388 (threat of extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in addition to provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, based on a complaint from the NCB.
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Aryan was detained in connection with the case on the Cordelia cruise ship on October 2, 2021. The NCB subsequently filed a chargesheet against 14 individuals but absolved Aryan of any wrongdoing.
The case took a turn when an ‘independent witness’ in 2021 asserted that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an NCB official and others to exonerate Aryan Khan. Following this revelation, the NCB conducted an internal vigilance probe against Wankhede and others, the findings of which were shared with the CBI, leading to the initiation of a case against Wankhede.
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