Sameer Wankhede, the former Mumbai NCB zonal director, has filed a petition with the Bombay High Court to contest the money laundering case brought against him by the Enforcement Directorate. He asserts that this legal action is a retaliatory measure following his complaint against a senior official within the anti-drug agency.
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Maharashtra: Former Mumbai NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede has filed a petition with the Bombay High Court challenging the money laundering case initiated against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). He contends that this case is a retaliatory measure in response to a complaint he filed against a senior official of the anti-drug agency.
The ED launched the money laundering investigation against Wankhede following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) registration of a case regarding an alleged demand for a bribe of Rs 25 crore from Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s family to absolve his son Aryan Khan in a drug-related matter.
In his plea submitted on February 6 through advocates Karan Jain, Sneha Sanap, and Aditya Targe, Wankhede asserts that the ED’s actions display bias and vindictiveness. He seeks the dismissal of the ED case and requests an interim order for protection against any coercive measures.
Additionally, Wankhede requests a halt to the ED’s investigation until his petition concerning the CBI case is heard and adjudicated. Both petitions, one against the CBI case and the other against the ED case, are scheduled for a hearing on February 15 before a division bench led by Justice P D Naik.
Notably, Wankhede obtained interim protection from coercive action in the CBI case last year through an order from the High Court. In his challenge against the ED case, Wankhede highlights that despite the registration of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) last year, summons have only recently been issued to some NCB officers.
He alleges that this timing aligns with his recent complaint against NCB’s Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh before a Delhi court, seeking action under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Wankhede explains that he resorted to approaching the Delhi court as both the Delhi and Mumbai police failed to investigate the complaint letters he sent against Singh.
On February 6, a court in Delhi issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West Delhi, instructing him to provide an action taken report regarding Wankhede’s complaints. Wankhede, in his petition filed with the High Court against the ED’s case, alleged that Singh and influential individuals in authority have mobilized various agencies such as the CBI, ED, and NCB to implicate him in a case. His plea stated that the ED’s case is a retaliatory action in response to Wankhede’s complaint against IPS Gyaneshwar in January 2024.
“The ED’s case is a counter blast to the complaint filed by the petitioner (Wankhede) against IPS Gyaneshwar in January 2024,”
–his plea said.
Furthermore, it claimed that Wankhede had received a threatening call, demanding him to withdraw his complaints against Singh and resign from his position as an IRS officer. Last year in May, Wankhede was charged by the CBI for allegedly soliciting a bribe of Rs 25 crore to refrain from implicating Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, in the drugs-on-cruise case.
The CBI booked Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy (120-B IPC), extortion threat (388 IPC), and bribery offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act, based on a complaint from the NCB.
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Aryan Khan was detained in connection with the alleged drug bust case on the Cordelia cruise ship on October 2, 2021. Subsequently, the NCB filed charges against 14 individuals in the drugs-on-cruise case, but exonerated Aryan Khan.
The case gained attention when an ‘independent witness’ claimed in 2021 that an NCB official, along with others including witness Gosavi, demanded Rs 25 crore to absolve Aryan Khan. Following an internal vigilance probe by the NCB against Wankhede and others, the findings were shared with the CBI, resulting in a case being registered against him.
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