CBI to grill Sameer Wankhede in Delhi this week

The FIR filed by the CBI against Sameer Wankhede says the NCBrsquos vigilance report found that his assets do not justify his declared income The investigating agency has summoned Wankhede to its headquarters in New Delhi for further questioning on May 18According to the CBIrsquos First Information Report FIR independently conducted inquiries into the allegations of criminal misconduct and corruption by Sameer Wankhede and Ashish Ranjan Prasad could not sufficiently justify their acquired assets as per their declared income The CBI has summoned Wankhede to its headquarters in New Delhi for questioning on Thursday May 18The CBI registered an FIR against former NCB Mumbai Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede then superintendent Vishwa Vijay Singh then NCB intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad KP Gosavi Sanvile Drsquosouza and other unknown persons on May 11 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 The complaint in the case was filed by the superintendent of the vigilance department at the NCB headquartersSameer Wankhede leaves the NCB office at Ballard Estate in the city on October 3 2021 PicShadab KhanThe FIR states that Wankhede was not able to justify his foreign visits and expensive watches ldquoWankhede has not properly explained his foreign visits and apparently misdeclared the expenditure of his foreign travels He has also not declared the source of his foreign visits properlyrdquo the FIR reads The FIR further mentions that Wankhede indulged in the sale and purchase of expensive wristwatches with a private entitymdashViral Rajanmdashwithout intimating the departmentAlso Read Drugsoncruise case Wankhede gave freehand to independent witnesses to create NCB official imageHowever a major part of the FIR deals with the alleged improper investigation and alleged extortion by Wankhede in connivance with NCB officials and private persons The CBI alleged that the accused at the directions of Wankhede had extorted an amount of around Rs 25 crore from the family members of those accused in the Aryan Khan drugs case by threatening to charge them with possession of narcotic substancesThe FIR mentions that many other personsmdashexcept for the 10 accused including Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchantmdashwhose names were available with NCB officials as suspected persons were not documented A few persons who were suspects were even allowed to leave without any documentation being doneCharas supplier let offThe FIR mentions that a person named Siddharth Shah was let off by NCB officials despite there being evidence against him ldquoShah who had allegedly supplied charas to Arbaaz Merchant was also allowed to walk free by NCB Mumbai officials despite admitting to selling charas to Merchant and incriminating chats that showed he himself was consuming drugs The investigation also revealed that the names of certain suspects were dropped from the first information note Inote and the names of certain other accused were included subsequently through modification to suit the proceedingrdquo the FIR said The initial Inote contained 27 names while the modified one contained only 10 namesKP Gosavi given free handThe accused nabbed in the Cordelia Cruise case were brought to the NCB office in a private vehicle belonging to KP Gosavimdasha private person and independent witness in the case The presence of Gosavi despite the presence of other NCB personnel to handle the accused created an impression that he was an NCB officer Gosavi was allowed to be with the accused and also allowed into the NCB office after the raid which is against the norms for an independent witnessldquoGosavi clicked selfies and recorded voice notes of an accusedrdquo the FIR reads According to the report Wankhede had directed that Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail be taken along as witnesses in the proceedings He allegedly directed Vishwa Vijay Singh to let Gosavi handle the accused in order to create an impression that he has their custody 2021Year NCB busted alleged drugs party on Cordelia cruise ship18 MayCBI to question Wankhede