Mumbai: The Mumbai unit of NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) has removed its investigating officer Sameer Wankhede from the Aryan Khan drugs case amid allegations of a Rs 8 crore payoff linked to the case.
Mr Wankhede has been transferred from his Mumbai unit.
A SIT, or special investigation team, to be led by senior police officer Sanjay Singh, will take over the Aryan Khan case as well as six others that were being handled by Mr Wankhede, including one involving Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's son-in-law.
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In a tweet today, Mr Malik said that he had demanded an SIT probe to investigate the charges against Mr Wankhede.
The NCB has stressed: "No officer or officers have been REMOVED from their present roles".
Shortly after news broke that the cases were being shifted, Mr Wankhede told a national satellite channel. "I have not been removed from anywhere" and that he had asked for the cases to be transferred out.
"I've not been removed from investigation. It was my writ petition in the Bombay High Court that the matter be probed by a central agency like the CBI or NIA. Based on that, a SIT has now been formed under the leadership of a senior officer..." he told a national daily over the phone.
Sameer Wankhede has been at the centre of a major controversy after accusations from Nawab Malik and, more importantly, from Prabhakar Sail, a NCB witness in the Aryan Khan case, brought his record and his handling of cases into question.
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