NCB’s Sameer Wankhede asked HC for arrest shield, told he will get 3-day notice

NCB officer Sameer Wankhede, who is leading investigations against Aryan Khan and his friends in the cruise ship raid, approached the Bombay high court for an arrest shield.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday disposed of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede’s plea for an arrest shield after the Maharashtra government told the bench that its inquiry was still at a preliminary stage and it will give the officer a three-day notice before taking coercive action against him. The government’s assurance in the high court came on a petition filed by Wankhede who complained that he was being personally attacked by the state government.

NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede will get a 3-day notice from Mumbai police before any coercive action against him, the prosecutor told the Bombay high court (HC)

Wankhede, who is leading the federal drug enforcement agency’s investigations into the cases registered after a raid on a cruise ship, wanted the high court to bar the police from arresting him. His lawyer mentioned the NCB officer’s plea before a bench of justices Nitin Jamdar and Vijay Shivram Kotwal on Thursday to seek urgent relief.

“I am personally attacked by the state government. My apprehension is they will arrest me. I want interim protection in the form of no coercive action,” the NCB officer told the judges. He also wanted the probe to be transferred from Maharashtra and entrusted to a federal agency such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A public prosecutor, appearing for the Maharashtra government, said the police received four complaints and was at the stage of conducting a preliminary inquiry to establish the veracity of the complaints.

After the public prosecutor assured the judges that the police will give him three days’ notice before taking any steps, the bench disposed of the petition.

The three-day notice will give Wankhede sufficient time to petition a court against the move.

Wankhede’s decision to rush to the court for an arrest shield comes after the Mumbai police started inquiring into the complaints received against the NCB officer, apart from two complaints against the Maharashtra minister and leader of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCB) Nawab Malik.

Nawab Malik has been continuously attacking the revenue service officers for the last few days, especially after startling revelations by Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the NCB’s cruise ship drug raid case in which Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan is arrested by the agency along with several others.

Aryan Khan, friend Arbaaz Merchant and model Munmun Dhamecha, who were arrested by a team led by Wankhede on October 3 after a raid on a cruise ship have all been in custody for 23 days.

A controversy erupted after Prabhakar Sail, one of the witnesses cited by the NCB for the raid, filed an affidavit sworn before a notary on October 23, alleged that he overheard his former employer Kiran Gosavi, also a witness in the Aryan Khan-cruise drug case, talking to a person about settling the matter for ₹18 crore and that amount of ₹8 crore would be required to be paid to Wankhede.

Sail, who said that he worked as the bodyguard of Kiran Gosavi, also a witness in the Aryan Khan-cruise drug case, also claimed that the NCB officers led by Wankhede got him to sign on blank papers that were later filled up by them.

Sail’s statement was recorded by a special police team set up to probe the six complaints including four against Wankhede. “He has shared all details to substantiate his claims,” Sail’s lawyer Tushar Khandare said on Wednesday.

Kiran Gosavi, who went missing after the Pune police reopened a probe against him in another case, was detained late on Wednesday. The Pune police said Gosavi will be formally placed under arrest.