Being targeted over dead mother, her religion, alleges NCB's Sameer Wankhede
Mumbai, Oct 25: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede, who is leading Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan's drugs case on Monday alleged "vendetta" as he slammed Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik's repeated attacks on his character and family.
Recommended Video
The NCB official said he was pained by the nature of personal defamatory and slanderous attacks by the minister without any justification.
"The series of acts of the minister over the past few days have put me and my family under tremendous mental and emotional pressure," Wankhede said in a statement.
Maharashtra NCP minister Nawab Malik on Monday claimed that Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal director Sameer Wankhede used forged documents including his birth certificate.
Aryan Khan drugs case: Mumbai Police provide protection to NCB witness Prabhakar Sail
Malik tweeted a photo of the purported certificate, saying "Sameer Dawood Wankhede ka yahan se shuru hua furjiwada. (Sameer Dawood Wankhede's document forging started from here)."
An NCB team led by Wankhede earlier this month allegedly seized drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast following which Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, was arrested on October 3.
Malik has repeatedly termed the cruise drugs bust case as "fake".
On Monday, the document posted by Malik on Twitter mentioned the name of the NCB official's father as Dawood. Wankhede said his father's name is Dnyandev, who was an excise official.
Malik
has
been
targeting
Wankhede
after
his
son-in-law
Sameer
Khan
was
arrested
in
an
alleged
drug
case.
The
minister
had
claimed
that
NCB
officials
booked
Sameer
Khan
under
wrong
charges
and
no
banned
drug
was
found
in
his
possession.
Malik, who is also the NCP spokesperson, recently claimed that his government will soon put Wankhede behind the bars.
On Monday, talking to a news channel in Nanded, Malik claimed that Wankhede is a Muslim by birth.
"In
the
past
15
days,
whenever
I
spoke
on
various
subjects
like
the
Maldives
tour
(of
Wankhede),
I
didn't
get
any
answers
and
they
were
termed
as
political
allegations.
But,
now
the
truth
has
come
out,"
he
said.
Malik
stated
that
earlier
the
BJP
had
said
his
son-in-law
and
Aryan
Khan
are
Muslims.
Later,
the
BJP's
"troll
army"
tried
to
create
an
environment,
making
it
a
Hindu-Muslim
issue
via
Wankhede,
he
alleged.
"NCB zonal director Wankhede's name is 'Sameer Dawood Wankhede', and he is a Muslim by birth. I have published his birth certificate (online). I had to make an effort to find it...he got the IRS job on bogus certificate...I shall reveal more such acts of his 'bogusgiri'," he said.
Malik also alleged that by "hiding" his religion, he (Wankhede) obtained fake documents and through this, the right of a backward class candidate was snatched.
Notably, Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday came out in support of Wankhede and said targeting a Dalit officer who is doing good work is not right.
Terming Malik's allegations against Wankhede as "baseless" and "mischievous", Athawale had defended the officer, saying he has not done anything wrong. Athawale had also accused Malik of trying to give a religious and casteist colour while targeting Wankhede.
Meanwhile, reacting to Malik's claims, Wankhede in a press release said the minister's act of publishing his personal information on Twitter was "defamatory in nature and unnecessary invasion of his family's privacy".
Wankhede said this was intended to malign him, his family, his father and late mother.
In the statement, Wankhede mentioned that his father Dnyandev Kachruji Wankhede retired as senior police inspector of the state Excise department, Pune, in June 2007. His father is a Hindu and his late mother Zaheeda was a Muslim, the official said.
Wankhede said he belongs to a "composite, multi-religious and secular family in true Indian tradition" and he is proud of his heritage.
The NCB official also mentioned that he married Dr Shabana Qureshi in 2006 under the Special Marriage Act. Both of them divorced mutually through a civil court in 2016. Later, in 2017, he married Kranti Redkar, the official added.