• End of stint: Sameer Wankhede’s tenure with Narcotics Control Bureau to end on Dec 31

    National
    End of stint: Sameer Wankhede’s tenure with Narcotics Control Bureau to end on Dec 31

    Mumbai: IRS officer Sameer Wankhede’s stint with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) will be ending on December 31. His tenure was marked by controversy after the arrest of Aryan Khan in drug-on-cruise case.





    Sameer Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, was on deputation to the NCB since September 2020 and is currently Mumbai zonal director of the anti-drugs agency.





    He was earlier posted with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).





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    As zonal director of NCB, Sameer Wankhede was involved in action against the drug syndicates allegedly involving Bollywood celebrities in the aftermath of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide.





    In October this year, a team led by Sameer Wankhede allegedly recovered drugs during a raid on a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast, and arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan along with others.





    But subsequently questions were raised about the credentials of independent witnesses used by the NCB during the raid, and it was also alleged that there was an attempt to extort money from Shah Rukh Khan by NCB officials.





    Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik targeted Wankhede, allegedly that he was born a Muslim but got his job in the Scheduled Castes quota by obtaining a bogus caste certificate.





    Sameer Wankhede denied the allegation and his father filed a defamation suit against Malik, an NCP leader.