Mumbai: CBI summons Sameer Wankhede in alleged extortion case

The Central Bureau of Investigation has summoned former Narcotics Control Bureau officer Sameer Wankhade in alleged extortion case on Thursday The CBI has asked Wankhade to appear in its Mumbai office for questioning reports said on WednesdayWankhade was an officer in charge of investigating the case against the son of superstar Shah Rukh Khan Aryan Khan who was arrested in November 2021 He has been charged for corruption and extortion He has been accused of asking for a bribe of 250 million rupees from the actors familyEarlier the officials said that foreign visits undertaken by former NCB officer will be under the scanner of the agencyA Narcotics Control Bureaus Special Enquiry Team SET had redflagged alleged improper explanations and apparent misdeclaration of the expenditure given by then NCB Zonal Director Wankhede on his foreign visitsThese findings were referred by the Centre to the Central Bureau of Investigation which had registered an FIR against the officer and four others on May 11He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properly It was also found that Wankhede has indulged himself in sale and purchase of expensive wrist watches with a private entity Viral Rajan without intimating the department present or parent the SET said in the findings which are now part of the FIRThe details of FIR made public on Monday show that independent witness K P Gosavi and one Prabhakar Sail now deceased were included by the NCB in the Cordelia cruise ship drug raid on October 2 2021 on the directions of WankhedeGosavi in conspiracy with his aide Sanvile DSouza and others had entered into the conspiracy to extort an amount of Rs 25 crore from the family members of Aryan son of Shah Rukh Khan by threatening them of the accusation of offences of possession of Narcotics substancesIn order to let him walk free Gosavi and DSouza negotiated the amount bringing it down to Rs 18 crore and even collected a token of Rs 50 lakh and returned a part of the amount later the FIR allegedAlso read Drugsoncruise case Sameeer Wankhede framed me for fame and forced me to hire his lawyer alleges model Munmun DhamechaAryan Khan who was formally arrested by the NCB on October 3 2021 after a raid on the Cordelia cruise ship a day before was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 28 after he had spent 25 days in jail But his name was not included in the list of accused in the NCB charge sheet for a lack of evidenceThe SET in its findings now part of the FIR said Aryan Khan and other suspects in the Cordelia Ship drugs bust case were brought to the NCB office in Gosavis private vehicle on October 2 2021Wankhede in the capacity of the immediate supervisory officer had directed to take Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail as the independent witness in the proceedings against the accused in the drug bust case the FIR statesHe had directed then NCB Superintendent V V Singh to let Gosavi handle the accused while taking him to the NCB Office thereby allowing a freehand to him and others in order to create a visual impression that Gosavi had the custody of the accused it saysIt appeared that the presence of the independent witness Gosavi around accused persons was created intentionally in such a manner so as to give an impression that Gosavi was an NCB personnel even though there were NCB personnel to handle the custody of the accused persons the FIR made public on Monday statesViolating all norms of independent witness Gosavi was allowed to be present in the company of the accused persons and even allowed to come to the NCB office after the raid and took the freedom to click selfies and recorded the voice note of an accusedThis position allowed Gosavi and DSouza to enter in the conspiracy with others to allegedly demand the bribe from Shah Rukh Khan they officials saidFlagging other irregularities the SET of NCB said the names of certain suspects were dropped from the information note INote and certain other names of were included subsequently through modification to suit the proceedingsThe initial INote contained 27 names and the modified INote contained only 10 names it saidThe Central Bureau of Investigation CBI booked 2008batch IRS officer Wankhede and four others Vishwa Vijay Singh Intelligence Officer Ashish Ranjan and two private persons K P Gosavi and Sanvile DSouza for alleged criminal conspiracy 120B IPC and threat of extortion 388 IPC besides provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint from the Narcotics Control Bureau NCB Wankhede has since been removed as NCB Zonal Director Additional reporting from PTI