Drug case: How focus shifted from Aryan Khan to NCB’s Sameer Wankhede

Here’s a close look at some of the allegations that Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede faces in the drug bust case involving actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan

The focus in the drug case involving Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, has shifted to Sameer Wankhede as Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has levelled a series of charges against the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director heading the probe in the matter.

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede arrives at the NCB office in New Delhi on Tuesday. The focus of the drug case has shifted from Aryan Khan to the investigator. (HT Photo)

Here are the allegations that Sameer Wankhede faces:

• Nawab Malik on Tuesday cited a letter purportedly written by an anonymous employee of the agency alleging Sameer Wankhede framed innocent people in 26 fake drug cases. He also claimed Wankhede engaged two private persons to tap phones of the people to frame them. The letter claims the NCB allegedly planted drugs shown to have been seized in some of the cases.

• On Monday, Nawab Malik claimed Sameer Wankhede is a Muslim but made a Hindu caste certificate by forgery to get into the Indian Revenue Service under the scheduled caste category. He tweeted a copy of a birth certificate, which he claimed is of Wankhede. The document shows his father’s name is Dawood K Wankhede while it is Dnyandev Wankhede as per the NCB website. Wankhede has rejected the allegation.

• The NCB on Monday started probing allegations that Wankhede was part of a ₹25 crore extortion racket after the arrest of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan. A vigilance inquiry was ordered after one of the NCB’s witnesses in the case, Prabhakar Sail, made the claim.

• Malik has also alleged that the day Aryan Khan was arrested, the NCB detained many others in connection with the same case but those linked to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader were released. The NCB has insisted it detained around 14 persons on that day and six were released while the remaining eight, including Aryan Khan, were arrested.

• Malik has also accused Sameer Wankhede of framing his son-in-law and two others in a drug peddling case in January and delaying the process for their bail. He said the NCB showed 200kg herbal tobacco as “ganja” and produced photographs of seizures taken at its office.