Sameer Wankhede's stint in Narcotics Control Bureau to end on December 31: Sources

Marked with controversies, the tenure of IRS officer Sameer Wankhede with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) would end on December 31, official sources said on Friday. Wankhede, a 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer, was on deputation to the NCB between September 2020 and December 2021, during which he served as the Mumbai zonal director of the anti-drugs agency. 

Sameer Wankhede and the drug syndicate 

As zonal director of NCB, 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 2020, starting with Rhea Chakroborty's arrest to summoning and questioning of celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Rakul Preet Kaur based on their alleged WhatsApp chats, Wankhede was the man at the helm of all NCB investigations. 

Not to forget investigations of NCB involving Arjun Rampal, his model girlfriend Gabriella Demetriades and his sister Komal Rampal, producer Firoz Nadiadwala’s wife Shabana Saeed, a former employee of Dharmatic Entertainment, Kshitij Ravi Prasad. Also, TV celebrities like Bharti Singh, and husband Harsh Limbachiyaa and Preetika Chauhan.

In 2021, actor Armaan Kohli was arrested by the NCB in August 2021 on charges of drug consumption. The arrest and raids were carried out under NCB's Mumbai chief Sameer Wankhede's supervision.

Cordelia cruise drug bust case 

However, Wankhede came to the limelight more than ever when in October 2021, he along with his team raided a Cordelia Cruise en route to Goa, allegedly recovered drugs and arrested 8 including Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan. Days after Aryan's arrest, one of the independent witnesses Prabhakar Sails made a statement to the media that Rs 25 crore was demanded by an official of the NCB to drop Aryan Khan's involvement in the cruise-drug bust case. Also, Sails claimed that a portion of the total amount was to go to Wankhede.

Thereafter, several personal and professional allegations had been levelled against Sameer Wankhede, but the most notable among them was by Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik. In a deeply personal attack, the NCP leader had claimed that Wankhede's father Dnyandev was actually 'Dnyandev Dawood Wankhede,' a Muslim by birth. Malik had alleged that his name had been changed to obtain a caste certificate, using which Sameer became an IRS officer via the 'reserve category'. 

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