CBI questions Sameer Wankhede in bribery case linked to Aryan Khan

The IRS officer arrived at the CBI office in Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla Complex around 10.20am on Saturday, and said, “Satyamev Jayate” (Truth alone triumphs).

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday questioned Sameer Wankhede, former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), for over three hours as part of its probe into corruption charges against him and four others in connection with the October 2021 Cordelia cruise drugs bust case.

Mumbai, India - May 20, 2023: former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhade reached The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning at at BKC in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer arrived at the CBI office in Bandra-Kurla Complex around 10.20am on Saturday. Wankhede said, “Satyamev Jayate” (Truth alone triumphs), while declining to speak to mediapersons gathered outside the CBI office building. At around 1 pm, the CBI officials had allowed him to go out for lunch for around an hour. Wankhede left the CBI office around 4.20pm.

When approached, Wankhede told HT, “I was questioned for over 3.5 hours. The questioning began at 10.30 am. This process will continue for long as there are several others who will be called in for questioning too.”

When asked if he was told to reappear for questioning, Wankhede said, “ Whenever the investigating officer calls me, I will come from Chennai.” However, Wankhede declined to comment on what transpired during the interrogation.

CBI sources said Wankhede was asked about the allegations contained in the agency’s First Information Report (FIR) registered on May 11. The CBI had registered a corruption case against Wankhede, Vishwa Vijay Singh, then NCB superintendent, and Ashish Ranjan, then intelligence officer of the NCB’s Mumbai zonal unit, as well as individuals namely KP Gosavi, Sanville D’Souza, and unknown persons.

The agency has accused the five people booked in the case of conspiring to extort ₹25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan in lieu of not booking his son in the cruise drugs bust case and subsequently obtaining a bribe of ₹50 lakh from the actor.

Dismissing the charges, Wankhede had earlier said the CBI action was result of a “vendetta” on the part of a few NCB officials.

On October 2, 2021, a team from the NCB’s Mumbai zonal unit carried out a search on the Goa-bound Cordelia and arrested Aryan Khan, his friend Arbaaz Merchant, and others, including two women. The NCB claimed that it had seized some narcotics as well. In May 2022, the NCB gave a clean chit to Aryan and five others.

The CBI’s case is connected to the revelations made by Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the NCB case. In an affidavit, Sail, who worked as a driver for K P Gosavi, another witness in the NCB case and one of the accused in the CBI FIR, alleged that he had overheard telephonic conversations between Gosavi and another person discussing a ₹25-crore deal to let off Aryan. Sail died of a heart attack in April 2022.

The CBI FIR is based on the findings of NCB’s Special Enquiry Team (SET), which was formed under the chairmanship of Gyaneshwar Singh, on October 25, 2021, around three weeks after the alleged drug bust.

Of the 27 people rounded up during the search of passengers, the NCB team had allegedly chosen to put 10 names in its first information note, according to SET’s findings. Those whose names were dropped from the list included a peddler who had allegedly supplied charas to Arbaaz, the agency has claimed.

The CBI FIR had also alleged that the NCB officers placed Gosavi around the accused persons “to give an impression that Gosavi was an NCB officer”. “It was this position that allowed Gosavi and his aide Sanvile D’Souza amongst others to conspire to extort ₹25 crore from the family members of Aryan Khan.”

The NCB had earlier shared its SET report with the CBI as well as Wankhede’s parent organisation, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), for further departmental proceedings. Wankhede, an IRS officer of 2008 batch, has been working with CBIC ‘s Directorate General of Taxpayer Services, Chennai, since May 2022.

Wankhede said, “The NCB had given its report to CBI and CBIC as per protocol. The reference to my administrative superiors, recommending departmental action in the service law domain, was challenged by me before the Central Administrative Tribunal. The tribunal in its order of December 2022 had issued notice to the respondents and stayed the proceedings, which has been further extended.” The CAT order of December 2022 had directed that Wankhede should be given a personal hearing.

On Friday, Wankhede had alleged before the Bombay high court that the “draft complaint” in the cruise drug bust case named Aryan as an accused, but later his name was dropped. The HC had directed the CBI not to take any coercive action till May 22. Wankhede had moved HC, seeking to quash the CBI FIR.