Aryan Khan gets clean chit: Government orders action against NCB's Sameer Wankhede for 'shoddy investigation'

THE TIMES OF INDIA (May 28, 2022)

New Delhi: Sameer Wankhede, the ex-officer of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) who initially investigated the Cordelia drugs haul case, is set to face departmental action for his “shoddy” probe, particularly against actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan who was given a clean chit by the antidrugs agency on Friday.

The central government has asked the competent authority to initiate “appropriate action” against him, sources said. The government is already pursuing action against Wankhede in the case relating to his alleged fake caste certificate, they added.

Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik had earlier tweeted a photo of his birth certificate, which records him as a Muslim, to allege that he had misrepresented facts and submitted a fake caste certificate showing him to be a scheduled caste, for his appointment to the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Malik claimed that Wankhede’s father had converted to Islam. The IRS officer, though, had rejected Nawab’s allegations.

Wankhede, an IRS officer of the 2008 batch, is no longer with NCB.

After his tenure with NCB ended in December 2021, he returned to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), his parent organization.

Sources said the finance ministry, the cadre controlling authority for Indian Revenue Service officers, is competent to initiate departmental action against him.