Sameer Wankhede, the man in charge of the drugs-on-cruise case in which Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan had spent over 20 days behind the bars, was transferred to Chennai on Monday.
The move comes days after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave a clean chit to Aryan in the case that had caused a major political storm last year leading to Wankhede being removed from the case
Monday's transfer order was issued by the revenue department and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the finance ministry. It said Wankhede, a 2008-batch IRS officer, was transferred from the Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM), Mumbai Zone, to the office of the Director General of Taxpayers’ Services (DGTS) in Chennai, with immediate effect.
The government had reportedly recommended action against Wankhede, the then Mumbai zone head of the NCB, for his “shoddy investigation” in the case, hours after the anti-drugs agency exonerated Aryan in the Cordelia drugs raid case.
Also read | Ex-NCB officer who arrested him says ‘no comment’
Wankhede, a once celebrated top officer of the NCB having led a number of raids and bringing the alleged nexus between drugs and the Hindi film industry to the fore, lost all his repute soon after Aryan Khan's arrest.
{{/usCountry}}Wankhede, a once celebrated top officer of the NCB having led a number of raids and bringing the alleged nexus between drugs and the Hindi film industry to the fore, lost all his repute soon after Aryan Khan's arrest.
{{/usCountry}}The federal anti-narcotics bureau, under Wankhede, had interrogated and arrested several Bollywood personalities in connection with their involvement in drugs.
However, soon after Aryan's name was dragged in the cruise case, Maharashtra minister and senior NCP leader Nawab Malik led the charges against the NCB officer and accused Wankhede of extortion and other irregularities. Months later, Malik was jailed in a money laundering case linked to fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
According to reports, a special investigation team (SIT) that had re-investigated the entire drugs-on-cruise case and the role of the accused found the initial arrests and probe by the team headed by Wankhede was shoddy and had many glaring lapses. The SIT said it found the Mumbai NCB team's action had many "grave irregularities" and that they were allegedly just trying to "implicate" Aryan in this case.