By Akanksha Raj
In October 2021, Sameer Wankhede allegedly demanded a ₹25 crore money from actor Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not charging his son Aryan Khan in a drug case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a money laundering case against Sameer Wankhede, former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Wankhede is accused of demanding a ₹25 crore bribe from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not framing his son Aryan Khan in a drug case in October 2021, as well as amassing wealth outside his known sources of income, according to sources.
The financial crimes investigation agency filed a case against Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, a few days ago based on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) first information report (FIR) filed in May last year.
The ED will most likely recall him for interrogation in this subject soon.
According to the officials listed above, as soon as Wankhede learned that the ED was initiating a case against him, he immediately filed the high court, appealing that no coercive action should be taken.
The high court has previously granted him relief from coercive action in the CBI case.
The CBI filed a first information report (FIR) on May 11, 2023, accusing Wankhede, former NCB SP Vishwa Vijay Singh, intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan, and two private individuals, Kiran Gosavi and Sanville D’Souza, of demanding ₹25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan in exchange for not framing his son, Aryan, in the October 2021 Cordelia drug case. The defendants decreased their bribe demand to ₹18 crore.
The CBI has already questioned Wankhede and the other suspects in the case. The Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer has denied the charges against him, claiming that the CBI action was a consequence of a “vendetta” on the part of a few NCB officials.
Aryan Khan had been arrested on October 3, 2021, one day after the contentious raid on the Cordelia cruise ship in Mumbai. On May 27, last year, a special investigative team (SIT) constituted by the NCB cleared Aryan Khan, stating that he was not a part of any wider drug-dealing syndicate, as Wankhede claimed.
The identities of Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant were added at the last minute to the agency’s “information note” according to an internal investigation by NCB. Furthermore, the investigation discovered that Wankhede’s team did not follow basic protocols for documenting phone seizures or recording statements.
In an affidavit caused before the Bombay High Court, the NCB argued that Wankhede cannot cite his conversations with actor Shah Rukh Khan as evidence of his integrity because he kept these conversations “secret”.
“Moreover, it is pertinent to note that there was no reason for Wankhede to have continued such chats with Shah Rukh Khan without informing his superior officers,” the Central Bureau of Investigation said. The CBI is presently analysing these conversations as part of its investigation into the officer.