That Maharashtra Minorities Minister Nawab Malik is livid is an understatement.
“He’s in huge bother and I cannot sit in peace till he’s ousted from workplace. That is going to be an extended present,” stated Malik, referring to his very public spat with Narcotics Management Bureau’s Mumbai zone director Sameer Wankhede.
Inside days of arresting actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan and a number of other others throughout a drug raid on the Goa-bound Cordelia cruise ship, Wankhede went from being the lead investigating officer to the one being investigated. He’s now on the centre of three ongoing probes—one, the investigation by the Nationwide Fee for Scheduled Castes into allegations of forgery over his caste certificates; two, the NCB’s vigilance probe to confirm the Rs25 crore extortion demand to let off Aryan Khan; and three, the Mumbai police probe into 4 separate allegations of bribery in opposition to him.
As soon as the blue-eyed boy of the NCB—it had recognised him as one among its greatest officers just some months in the past—Wankhede finds himself in a pickle, his credibility and credentials questioned. And on the coronary heart of this mess lies a barrage of tweets, bytes and near a dozen information conferences by Malik, who has been levelling costs in opposition to Wankhede and focusing on him personally and professionally on an virtually each day foundation.
The newest one accuses him of “kidnapping Aryan Khan for ransom in tandem with BJP chief and mastermind Mohit Kamboj”. On November 5, Wankhede was taken off the Cordelia case and 5 different excessive profile circumstances, which have been transferred to the NCB’s particular investigation staff (SIT).
Barely an hour earlier than he met THE WEEK at his workplace in Mumbai’s Kurla, Malik tweeted in opposition to Wankhede’s sister-in-law Harshada Redkar, demanding to know whether or not she, too, was “concerned within the drug enterprise”. He shared screenshots that confirmed one Harshada Dinanath Redkar listed below ‘respondent and advocate’ in a 2008 case registered below the Narcotic Medicine and Psychotropic Substances Act in a Pune court docket.
“I cannot overlook the best way he (Wankhede) framed my son-in-law (Sameer Khan) and advised him that he’ll oust me from my chair,” stated Malik. He added that efforts have been on to additional expose “the person and his military of extortionists”.
The Malik-Wankhede feud began final 12 months, when comedienne Bharti Singh and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa have been raided and arrested for alleged consumption of hashish. The raid was a part of the then investigations into the Bollywood medication case following actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s loss of life.
On the time, Wankhede was main the raid, and Malik questioned the NCB’s “protocol and procedures that jailed addicts as an alternative of rehabilitating them”. He additionally stated that Wankhede was “unfairly chasing celebrities”. Malik stated that to avenge him, Wankhede framed his “son-in-law in a pretend drug-related case below the NDPS Act and stored him behind bars for eight months”. That’s when Wankhede allegedly stated that he would ensure that Malik misplaced his chair and public workplace.
“He has completed every little thing he might to push me out,” stated Malik. “However I’ll push him out. There isn’t any approach he can be confirmed harmless. Let him disprove even one proof that I’ve submitted to the media, be it regarding extortion or forgery of paperwork to get into the Indian Income Service.”
Whilst businesses probe Wankhede’s start and marriage certificates to determine whether or not any forgery was concerned, these near him stand by him. “I can vouch for Sameer’s integrity,” stated lawyer Dushyant Shingte, who practices within the Bombay Excessive Courtroom. He has identified Wankhede because the Nineteen Nineties after they have been doing their bachelor’s in arts (historical past) at Ramnarain Ruia Faculty, Matunga. They remained mates even after graduating in 2001.
“He was a Hindu from the SC class and was by no means ashamed of his caste,” Shingte stated. “His mom was Muslim and he was very near her, and it was on her insistence that he married a Muslim girl. However he has by no means hidden any of this. He doesn’t have a giant group of mates as a result of he isn’t that outgoing, however he makes it some extent to maintain his mates shut.”
Shingte remembered Wankhede calling celebrities a “infamous lot” proper from when his father was within the customs and quite a lot of movie stars would find yourself within the internet for evading guidelines. “This whole notion that he’s glamour-hungry is misplaced,” stated Shingte. “He was by no means even money-minded as a result of he had all the time been well-off. In school, when none of us might afford a cell phone, he had one; he would come to school in his automobile, a Toyota Corsa.”
He recalled the time after they have been ready in queue to submit their closing 12 months admission varieties, and noticed a pupil bribing a peon with Rs100 to hasten the method. “Sameer was staunchly in opposition to it and we waited it out for 3 hours,” stated Shingte. “However he didn’t shell out cash even when he had plenty of it.”
Mohsina Mukadam, affiliate professor of historical past, Ruia school, recalled Wankhede being a shy and quiet pupil who was respectful, honest and studious, and had full attendance. “Additionally, in contrast to many different alumni, Sameer all the time stored in contact together with his alma mater and we even invited him to provide motivational lectures to our college students. Just a few years in the past, we felicitated him with the ‘Rising Star of Ruia’ award. When he met me a few years later, he jogged my memory of my lessons on medieval India, which he all the time regarded ahead to.”
Wankhede’s former colleague on the Air Intelligence Unit stated that he might “stick with his weapons regardless of strain from high-profile folks”. “Why query his plum postings? He did a significantly good job, which was acknowledged, and that’s how he obtained to the place he’s,” he stated.
However Dr Zahid Qureshi, father of Wankhede’s first spouse Dr Shabana, shared a unique view. “I can not imagine he’s defending himself as a Hindu now,” he advised THE WEEK. “To us, Sameer and his household had all the time been training Muslims, which is why I obtained my daughter married to him within the first place. Each our households have been dwelling in the identical space, inside a strolling distance of barely two minutes. Even right now, his father is called Dawood within the space. The truth is, that’s how I obtained launched to him the very first time we met. I’m fairly shocked seeing him consult with himself as ‘Dnyandev’.”
Wankhede married Shabana, a gynaecologist, in 2006. He has a son from his first marriage. The couple divorced in 2016. Qureshi stated he didn’t query Wankhede on how he obtained into authorities service as a result of he gave the impression to be “a really promising and decided younger man who might pull it off on his benefit”. “I nonetheless can not imagine Sameer used a solid caste certificates simply in order that he might get into the providers by way of quota. I believed he was higher than that,” stated Qureshi.
In the meantime, the Wankhedes have turned to regulation to “sort out Malik and his costs”. A defamation go well with has been filed in opposition to Malik, and a everlasting injunction sought, restraining him and others “performing below his directions” from publishing, writing or talking within the media concerning the household.
THE WEEK final met Wankhede a couple of week earlier than Aryan Khan’s arrest on October 3. It was late afternoon and he had not had lunch. However that didn’t cease him from discussing the NCB’s makes an attempt to crack down on town’s narcotics community. Just a few days forward of our assembly, Wankhede and his staff have been attacked by a gang of international drug peddlers working close to the railway strains in Mumbai—the third such assault in 9 months.
“These individuals are fearless of the regulation. However we is not going to hand over the chase,” Wankhede stated. He appeared livid and agitated. “I cannot seek out folks selectively,” he stated. “I believe that’s the mistake we’ve got been making to date—simply going behind the biggies and ignoring the small fish. I’ll hunt even these with micrograms of contraband.”
Animated to date, he out of the blue paused, as if misplaced in thought. He snapped out of it and adjusted the subject. He started narrating a “disturbing incident” from the day earlier than. His actor-wife Kranti Redkar was driving with their twins when she was intercepted by a visitors cop for “dashing and crossing lanes”. “Are you able to think about her dashing with two little children within the automobile? How weird!” he stated.
However what troubled him extra was that the cop had “demanded a bribe” even when his spouse provided to pay the effective. After I stated I had an analogous expertise, he stated, “Don’t give in to it. Corruption is rampant and it’s a systemic drawback. This perspective must be nipped within the bud and we must always communicate in opposition to it. Complain should you encounter corruption.” Mockingly, he’s now being accused of the exact same factor he spoke so vehemently in opposition to.
On November 4, the state SIT, which is probing allegations of extortion within the Aryan Khan case, discovered CCTV footage putting the blue Mercedes—belonging to Shah Rukh Khan’s supervisor Pooja Dadlani—at Decrease Parel. It’s right here that the cash was allegedly collected by self-styled detective Kiran Gosavi to stop Aryan’s arrest. The extortion demand got here out in an affidavit filed by Prabhakar Sail, who was Gosavi’s bodyguard.
Sail added that Gosavi, Dadlani and one Sam D’Souza met at Decrease Parel hours after Aryan was picked up by the NCB. Later, Sail claimed to have overheard a dialog by which Gosavi and others mentioned demanding 025 crore, of which 08 crore was to be paid to Wankhede. Whether or not the cash reached Wankhede or whether or not he was concerned within the negotiations is for the businesses to seek out out, however there isn’t any denying that he has turn out to be a polarising determine.
Throughout the interview with THE WEEK, Wankhede had acknowledged all of the publicity and a spotlight he had acquired because the main man on the NCB. “I do know I can be known as names,” he stated, “however I’m actually solely doing my obligation as a authorities servant. I need to be answerable to my wage. I’ll combat the unsuitable always.”
However, like Malik stated, that is going to be an extended present, and appears like it’ll solely get murkier with allegations and counter-allegations.
