After Nawab Malik’s latest tweet attack, Sameer Wankhede lists names of family

Sameer Wankhede, who is probing the alleged drugs seizure case involving Aryan Khan, has been accused of extortion among other charges by Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik.

Under attack from Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) official Sameer Wankhede on Monday issued a press release saying the charges levelled against him are “defamatory in nature and unnecessary invasion of my family privacy.” Wankhede is investigating the cruise drugs seizure case, in which Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan is one of the accused.

Sameer Wankhede’s release came after Nawab Malik shared what looked like the NCB official's birth certificate on Twitter earlier in the day (ANI)

Wankhede’s release came after Nawab Malik shared what looked like the NCB official's birth certificate on Twitter earlier in the day and seemed to suggest that the NCB zonal director has used forged documents.

Wankhede, a 2008 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, said he belongs to "a composite, multi-religious and secular family in true Indian tradition and I am proud of my heritage”. “In this context, I would like to express that my father Sh. Dnyandev Kachruji Wankhede retired as Senior Police Inspector of State Excise Department, Pune on 30.06.2007. My father is a Hindu and my mother Late Mrs. Zaheeda was a Muslim,” he said.

The NCB zonal director in Mumbai also listed both his marriages in the press release. “Further, I married Dr. Shabana Qureshi in 2006 in a civil marriage ceremony under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Both of as divorced mutually through Civil Court under the Special Marriage Act in the year 2016. Later in the year 2017, I married Shrimati Kranti Dinanath Redkar,” he added.

“The publishing of my personal documents on Twitter is defamatory in nature and unnecessary invasion of my family privacy. It is intended to malign me, my family, my father and my late mother,” Wankhede said in the release.

“The series of acts of Hon'ble Minister over the past few days have put me and my family under tremendous mental and emotional pressure. I am pained by the nature of personal, defamatory and slanderous attacks by Hon'ble Minister without any justification,” he added.

Wankhede also approached a special court in Mumbai against allegations of extortion levelled against them in the cruise drugs seizure case. Wankhede in his affidavit refuted the allegations levelled against him and claimed he was under a "lurking threat of arrest as it does not suit some vested interests for conducting an honest and impartial investigation".

Wankhede also claimed that he was being personally targeted by a well-known political figure and the only reason he can fathom is that the NCB arrested "this person's son-in-law Sameer Khan". Sameer Khan is the son-in-law of Nawab Malik.

On Sunday, the NCB official also wrote to Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale, seeking protection from likely legal action "being planned" against him by unknown persons to falsely frame him concerning an alleged vigilance related issue.

Wankhede, without naming anyone, claimed that the threat of jail and dismissal have been issued against him publically by highly respectable public functionaries.

An NCB team led by Wankhede earlier this month allegedly seized drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast following which Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3. He is currently lodged in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai. His bail application is likely to be heard by the Bombay High Court on Tuesday.