Mumbai: The Narcotics Control Bureau’s special investigation team (SIT), which had taken up six cases for further investigations, will now focus on the cruise drug bust case involving Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, NCP minister Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan case and actor Armaan Kohli’s case.

The SIT that was formed after a controversy erupted over allegations of a payoff to an NCB official in the cruise drug bust case and images of witnesses accompanying the accused to the NCB’s office with Aryan Khan, and selfies with him emerged.

Nawab Malik had alleged that the case was fabricated. NCB had then said Malik was trying to settle scores after his son-in-law was booked in a narcotics case.

The SIT had taken over six cases but the priority will be to broaden the probe into these three cases, according to deputy director of NCB Sanjay Singh.

He told TOI, “Due to shortage of manpower we have now taken up only three cases to relook at investigations carried out and later on we will take up the other three.”'

The three other cases pertain to the arrest of accused from Mumbra, Jogeshwari and Dongri for dealing in contraband.

State Cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Monday dropped another bombshell on Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede and a few other officers. Malik said he has received an anonymous letter from an unknown person claiming to be an NCB officer, who alleged that NCB officers have been framing people by planting narcotics on the instruction of Wankhede.

The minister shared the four-page letter on Twitter. The person who wrote the letter claims he has been posted at NCB’s Mumbai office for the past two years. According to the letter, written in Hindi, actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan has also been framed and drugs were planted in the cruise liner case. It has details of 26 more alleged false cases, including the one involving Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan. Wankhede told mid-day that he could not comment on a comedy novel.

The letter further alleged that during the investigation linked to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, Wankhede was brought to the NCB from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on loan basis with the help of Union home minister Amit Shah. During the probe, various celebrities questioned by Wankhede paid huge extortion money, which went to his seniors. The extortion money was collected by a senior lawyer close to Wankhede, and after every arrest, the accused would be asked to approach the lawyer (mid-day is not naming the lawyer), the letter stated.

“To frame people he has his own team of officers...who plant drugs during the searches at people’s houses. If they find drugs, and the quantity is less, they add more to make it a commercial quantity, which makes getting bail difficult,” the letter read. The letter has named other NCB officers and those who have been allegedly supporting Wankhede in his alleged wrongdoings. He writes, “They make false panchanama in the NCB office and the same is used wherever they want.”

“Wankhede has been purchasing drugs from his aides and their surnames are Dashrath, Jameel, Afzal, Mohammed, Shaikh, Adil Usmani and Nasir. These drugs are used to make false cases. Wankhede has been paying them from the Secret Service Fund or the amount he seizes during raids,” the letter added.

In Sushant’s case, the letter claims, “Karan Arora, Zaid Vilatra and Abbas Lakhani were arrested initially with very small quantity [of drugs] and at that the same time Wankhede joined the NCB, and officer Dinesh Chavhan was handling operations and a superintendent-rank officer was handling administration.”

“Wankhede asked Chavhan to add the names of actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik Chakraborty and Samuel Miranda in their [the trio] statement. Chavhan refused to do so, after which Wankhede removed him from operations and gave the charge to the superintendent-rank officer, who is working as Wankhede’s puppet and both are misusing Section 27A of the NDPS Act to frame people. One of the accused in Sushant’s case, Mohammed Jumman had filed a complaint that the superintendent-rank officer had taken around Rs 20-25 lakh, but Wankhede closed the complaint saying that allegations are false.” Chavhan did not respond to mid-day’s calls and messages.

The letter adds that Sameer Khan was also framed in a false case of possession of 200 kg ganja, which in reality was tobacco, and two NCB officers planted 1 gram cocaine on actor Arman Kohli. It said senior officers are not acting against Wankhede because he pays them a huge amount monthly.

The letter was also marked to CM Uddhav Thackeray, home minister Dilip Walse Patil, Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. It has demanded an enquiry commission against Wankhede. The unknown officer said he is not revealing his name because there is a threat to his life. NCB officers said no action will be taken against Wankhede on the letter. It added that the agency has not received any such letter, so there is no way of taking cognisance of its contents.

Sameer Wankhede, NCB’s zonal director, visited Dubai and Maldives with his family during the Sushant Singh Rajput episode last year and did “settlements” with Bollywood people, alleged state minority minister Nawab Malik on Thursday, intensifying his attack on the anti-drug officer. Wankhede said he never visited Dubai and that he would sue the minister. Malik has been relentless in his attacks following Aryan Khan’s arrest.

Malik said the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer had extorted crores of rupees from Bollywood personalities in connivance with the BJP. “He has been making false cases against celebrities to extort money and some dealings have happened in Dubai and Maldives. He along with his family visited Dubai and Maldives during the investigation of Sushant Singh Rajput last year between September and December. There are pictures of his sister in Maldives which she has posted on her social media handle.” he said.

Though Malik says Wankhede’s sister visited the Maldives in September 2020, her photos taken in the island nation were posted on her Instagram page last month. Malik said, “The entire Wankhede family is bogus and I am going to prove this with evidence very soon. The day I bring those evidence before the public he will lose his post as an officer and he has to face suspension. Now he has been calling through other people that he didn’t frame my son-in-law and it was done on behalf of some people but he is not revealing the names of those people.”

Earlier, the NCB had arrested Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan in an illicit drug trafficking case. A special NDPS court granted him bail, saying charges of illegal drug trafficking and harbouring won’t sustain against him under section 27A and 29 of the NDPS Act. Insisting that it has strong material against Sameer Khan, the NCB said that it would move the high court to challenge the order. Sameer Khan spent nearly 8.5 months in jail.

Addressing party workers, NCP leader Malik also said, “The MVA government is not scared of anybody or any agency that the Centre is using to destabilise the government. I want to tell them that they won’t succeed.”

Wankhede rejected Malik’s allegation. “The allegations levelled by Malik are baseless. I will take legal action against him for targeting female members of my family. I have never visited Dubai in my life since I have joined the service. I have never visited Maldives with my sister. I officially took leave from the government and went on a holiday with my family with my hard-earned money.”

Malik has held four press conferences where he made serious charges against what he called NCB’s wrongdoings in the Aryan Khan case. He said that the case was fake and Aryan Khan was framed by the NCB on the instructions of the BJP. The informer in the cruise drug bust case, Manish Bhanu, was a BJP member and he was a panch in the case, while another panch K P Gosavi is a wanted accused, he has said. He alleged that NCB let go of three people, including the brother-in-law of a BJP leader on October 3.

Mutha Ashok Jain, NCB’s deputy director-general, said through a press release that Wankhede had visited Maldives with his family on July 27 last year after the approval of the “competent authority”. “Certain incorrect information has been circulated against Sameer Wankhede, IRS, Zonal Director of Mumbai. He was inducted as Zonal Director, Mumbai on 31.08.2020 on loan basis for the period of six months and after this, he has not submitted any application for Ex-India leave to Dubai and as per the approval of Competent Authority on 27.07.2021, the officer has availed Ex-India leave along with his family to Maldives,” reads the press release. 

Soon after, Malik tweeted photos of Wankhede and his sister saying, “Sameer Wankhede has accepted the fact that he had visited Maldives but he denies the visit to Dubai. Here is the proof of his visit to Dubai with his sister. Sameer Wankhede was at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Dubai on 10th December 2020. His lie stands exposed.”

The pictures were taken from the social media account of Wankhede’s sister. Wankhede said, “The photos Malik is talking about are of Mumbai. I was in Mumbai at that time.”

---------------------