HC allows Wankhede to amend plea to include ground of probe against bribe giver

The Bombay High Court has allowed Sameer Wankhede, the former NCB Mumbai zonal director, to amend his petition in the bribery case involving the arrest of Aryan Khan. The court also extended his interim protection from arrest until June 20. Wankhede wants to include additional grounds for quashing the FIR, including the prosecution of the alleged bribe giver. The court permitted the amendment but stated that no further amendments would be allowed. The case will be heard again on July 20.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday allowed former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with four others in the alleged ₹25-crore bribery case in connection with the arrest of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, to amend his petition to include additional ground that the alleged bribe giver should also be prosecuted. The HC also extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Wankhede till June 20.

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Senior advocate Aabad Ponda for Wankhede submitted that he needed to amend the petition to include additional grounds for quashing the CBI FIR. The counsel stated that as Wankhede was booked under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, then the bribe giver should also have been booked, and that the NCB had no right to obtain sanction to prosecute him.

When Wankhede’s petition seeking quashing of the FIR registered on May 11 based on a written complaint of the NCB, Delhi, came up for hearing before the bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice SG Dige, Ponda submitted that the IRS officer was appointed to the Finance Ministry and even when he was working with the NCB he was shown to be an employee of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.

Ponda said he wished to add three more grounds to his petition in response to the averments made by the central agency in their affidavit.

Responding to the claims in the NCB’s affidavit, which stated that Wankhede’s communication with actor Shah Rukh Khan through WhatsApp was unsolicited, Ponda submitted that as per section 7A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the bribe giver should also be prosecuted, but as the CBI had not booked anyone in that regard, Wankhede wanted to add that ground to show that the FIR against him was with mala fide intention.

Ponda added that though the agency had claimed in its affidavit that Wankhede was having assets disproportionate to his income, they had not charged him under section 13 of the PC Act, hence it was another ground to prove the mala fides of the FIR along with the ground that the sanction obtained by NCB along with the complaint under section 17A of the PC Act was not proper as it did not have authority.

After hearing the submissions, the bench permitted Wankhede to amend the petition, but held that it would not allow any further amendments and extended the interim protection from coercive action till July 20, when the petition will come up for further hearing.