Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede who has been leading the investigation into the drugs-on cruise case involving Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan, has been removed from the probe team. The investigation of the case has been handed over to a special investigation team of the Delhi NCB unit.
"Total six cases of our zone will now be investigated by Delhi teams (of NCB), including Aryan Khan's case and 5 other cases. It was an administrative decision," said Mutha Ashok Jain, Deputy DG, South-Western Region, NCB. "The SIT team comprising officers from Operations Branch of NCB HQ constituted by Director General, NCBA team of Delhi NCB will arrive in Mumbai on Saturday to take over the investigations into the cases," he said.
The cases which have national and international ramifications have been handed over to Delhi NCB's SIT in order to conduct deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages, the agency said in a statement.
No officer or officers have been removed from their present roles & they'll continue to assist the Operations Branch investigation as required until any specific orders are issued to the contrary. It's reiterated that NCB functions across India as a single integrated agency, it further said.
However, NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede told news agency ANI that he was not removed from the investigation. "I've not been removed from the investigation. It was my writ petition in court that the matter be probed by a central agency. So Aryan case & Sameer Khan case are being probed by Delhi NCB's SIT. It's coordination between NCB teams of Delhi and Mumbai," he said.
Watch: Aryan Khan walks out after 28 days in custody in cruise drugs case
As soon as the news broke, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik took to Twitter and said, "Sameer Wankhede removed from 5 cases including the Aryan Khan case. There are 26 cases in all that need to be probed. This is just the beginning... a lot more has to be done to clean this system and we will do it."
Sameer Wankhede is now facing multiple extortion cases in the state. Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the Mumbai cruise raid case had alleged that the Wankhede and some other NCB officials had sought Rs 25 crore from Shah Rukh Khan in order to release Aryan Khan.
A five-member team of the probe agency led by Gyaneshwar Singh is probing the allegations against Wankhede.
An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship off the Mumbai coast, which was on its way to Goa on October 2.
