Sameer Wankhede seeks CBI probe against Nawab Malik

Though the offence registered against Malik was cognisable, he was neither arrested nor had police made any progress in the investigation, Wankhede said

MUMBAI: Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede on Thursday approached the Bombay high court seeking a court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any other independent agency into an atrocities case against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former minister Nawab Malik. Though the offence registered against Malik was cognisable and non-bailable, he was neither arrested nor had police made any progress in the investigation, primarily owing to Malik’s clout, Wankhede said in the petition.

Sameer Wankhede, former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Currently posted as an additional commissioner with the Director General, Taxpayer Services (DGTS), Wankhede had courted controversy during his stint as the Narcotics Control Bureau zonal director, when he arrested Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, in connection with the Cordelia drug bust case.

In the petition filed through advocate Sana Rais Khan, Wankhede, who belongs to the Mahar Scheduled Caste, accused Malik of making slanderous caste-based remarks against him and his family. Malik started targetting him in press briefings and interviews after he arrested the former minister’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in a drugs-related case in January 2021, he said in the petition.

The Goregaon police registered a first information report based on Wankhede’s complaint on August 14, 2022, charging Malik under section 3(1)(u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Though the offence was cognisable and non-bailable, no action was taken against Malik owing to his clout in political circles, the petition said.

The 43-year-old IRS officer further stated that though restraining orders had been passed against Malik by civil courts, the NCP leader continued making defamatory statements against him and his family members, including in a television interview on October 27, 2024.

Wankhede had written to the Mumbai police commissioner and the assistant commissioner of police, Goregaon division on several occasions, urging them to arrest Malik and subject him to custodial interrogation for an effective and unbiased investigation, yet no action had been taken by the police machinery, the petition said.

The court has posted the petition for hearing on November 28.