Report on Sameer Wankhede who arrested SRK's son raises corruption charges

An NCB report pores over Sameer Wankhede's assets including his expensive watches, and properties which are disproportionate to the known sources of income. It also raises questions about his expensive foreign trips.

Mumbai: A vigilance report on former Mumbai Zonal Narcotics control Bureau director Sameer Wankhede has brought to light accounts of his lavish foreign trips abroad, his expensive property purchases and the assets that he owns which is disproportionate to the known sources of his income.

Expensive foreign trips- Wankhede's trips abroad with his family was one of the focus areas of the vigilance report, which stated that from 2017 to 2021, Wankhede had gone on six foreign trips abroad. He stayed in UK, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa and Maldives and his overall vacation accounted for 55 days. In his voluntary disclosure, the former NCB sleuth said he had spent Rs 8.57 lakh as part of his travel expenditure, which doesn't checkout with the tourism market price.

Expensive watches, properties- Wankhede's expensive watches were in disproportionate to his income. A Rolex watch was sold to him at Rs 17 lakh, the price of which was Rs 22 lakh. He made the purchase through a private entity, the report said. His list of property, four flats in Mumbai and 416.88 acre land in Washim are disproportionate to his income as well.

Apart from this, he claimed to have spent ₹ 82.8 lakh on another flat in Goregaon whose market price is ₹ 2.45 crore. Wankhede had also purchased another flat for ₹ 1.25 crore with his wife, the money source of which was not disclosed by him. The Income Tax returns of Wankhede and his wife mention their annual income to be only Rs 45,61,460.

The report also elucidated the botch up by the infamous drug enforcement officer in arresting actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise case. It mentioned that the names of Aryan Khan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant were added at the last moment while the names of some other suspects were dropped. The report also says that during the raid, a girl was let go despite the recovery of rolling paper from her.

Aryan Khan's custody was intentionally compromised by Sameer Wankhede so that Kiran Gosavi, a witness in the case, can get a free hand. This amounts to misconduct and violation of Central Civil Services rules. Moreover, the CCTV footage of the NCB office had gone corrupt. The DVR and Hard Copy of the night when Aryan Khan was brought to the NCB office did not tally, the report said.

Wankhede is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI has accused Wankhede of demanding ₹ 25 crore bribe from Aryan Khan's family if he does not want to get framed in the drug bust case.