Mumbai: ED transfers money laundering probe against Sameer Wankhede to Delhi

Indias top investigating agency ED Tuesday informed the Bombay High Court that it has transferred the probe into a money laundering case against Sameer WankhedeThe Enforcement Directorate ED said that the case has been transferred form Mumbai zone director of the Narcotics Control Bureau to its Delhi office newswire PTI reportedWankhede who has moved the high court here seeking to quash the case should instead move the Delhi High Court it said Wankhede who approached the Bombay High Court last week has also sought a temporary stay to the investigation and protection from coercive action such as arrest until his petition is decidedOn Tuesday his lawyer Aabad Ponda argued before a division bench of Justices P D Naik and N R Borkar that the EDs action of transferring the probe was malafideTill Friday the ED was sending summons to persons asking them to appear before its Mumbai office But now after this petition was filed by Wankhede the probe has been transferred to Delhi advocate Ponda saidThis was done only to ensure that Wankhede did not get a hearing on Thursday before the Bombay HC which had last year granted him interim protection from coercive action in a case of corruption and extortion registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI the lawyer claimedAdvocate Hiten Venegaonkar appearing for the ED defended the transfer of probe citing administrative reasons The entire proceedings are already transferred to Delhi The entire cause of action lies there now All papers have been sent to Delhi There is nothing here now he saidAlso read Mehrauli mosque demolition Delhi High Court asks Delhi Development Authority to maintain status quo on landThe bench said it would hear the matter on February 15 Thursday along with Wankhedes petition filed last year against the CBI caseThe ED registered a money laundering case against him after taking cognisance of the CBIs First Information Report FIR where he was accused of demanding Rs 25 crore bribe from Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khans family to spare his son Aryan Khan in an alleged drugs caseWankhede a 2008batch Indian Revenue Service IRS officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre in his plea said the EDs case smacks of malice and vendettaWhile the case was registered last year summons has been issued to some NCB officers now after he filed a complaint against the NCBs deputy director Gyaneshwar Singh last month before a Delhi court seeking action against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act Wankhede saidSingh and a few powerful people unleashed agencies like the CBI ED and NCB to frame him he allegedWankhede then the NCBs zonal director in Mumbai was in limelight after Shah Rukh Khans son Aryan Khan was arrested in an alleged drug seizure onboard the Cordelia cruise ship here on October 2 2021Later the NCB filed a charge sheet against 14 accused in the case but gave a clean chit to AryanThe case took a completely different turn when an independent witness claimed that Rs 25 crore were demanded by an NCB official and others to let off Aryan Khan leading to an internal vigilance probe against Wankhede by the NCB With inputs from PTI