CBI quizzes Sameer Wankhede for 5 hours in cruise drug bust bribery case

The 2008-batch Indian Revenue Service officer reached the CBI’s Bandra-Kurla Complex office in Mumbai around 10.30 am, in keeping with an undertaking he gave in the court of Justices Sharmila U Deshmukh and Arif S Doctor on Friday.

“Satyameva Jayate,” Wankhede told reporters before entering the CBI office. Wankhede left the CBI office around 1.15 pm and reported back by 2.15 pm. He was questioned till 4.30 pm. A CBI source said, “We wanted to question him and get more details in this matter.”

On the night of October 2, 2021, Wankhede, as the Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau, led a team of officers to raid the Cordelia cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. The NCB subsequently claimed to have seized 13 g of cocaine, 5 g of mephedrone, 21 g of marijuana, 22 pills of MDMA and Rs 1.33 lakh during the raid. The agency arrested 17 people, including Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan.

An independent witness in the case allegedly demanded Rs 25 crore from the Bollywood actor’s family by threatening to falsely implicate Aryan in the case, as per an investigation by the NCB’s Special Enquiry Team (SET).

The investigation also found that after negotiation, a deal was finalised for Rs 18 crore, with Rs 50 lakh to be given as a token amount. It was on the basis of this investigation that the CBI registered the bribery case against members of the NCB team.

K P Gosavi, the independent witness, was made to appear like an NCB official and the team led by Wankhede allegedly dropped the names of 17 people as suspects, according to the SET.

A CBI spokesperson said in a statement, “We have registered an FIR on May 11 against Sameer Wankhede, then Zonal Director of NCB (Mumbai Zone Unit); Vishwa Vijay Singh, then Superintendent (NCB); Ashish Ranjan Prasad, then Intelligence Officer of the Mumbai Zonal Unit (NCB); K P Gosavi and Sanvile D’Souza (alleged witness) and other unknown persons.”

“On May 12, the CBI conducted searches at 29 locations across Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati, which led to recovery of incriminating material,” the spokesperson added.

The CBI FIR stated, “Further inquiries have also been done in the matters of allegations of criminal misconduct and corrupt practices of Wankhede and Prasad independently, which could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income. It has also come to the notice of the Vigilance Branch of NCB that Wankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and had apparently misdeclared the expenditure on his foreign travels. He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properly and it was also found that Wankhede has indulged himself in sale and purchase of expensive wristwatches with a private entity without intimating the department.”