Sameer Wankhede Not To Probe Aryan Khan Drugs Case, NCB Transfers Total 6 Cases From Mumbai NCB To SIT

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has transferred the probe into the Cruise Ship Drugs Case, in which Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan has been named as an accused, from the Mumbai unit of NCB to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).

The order for the transfer of cases has been issued by NCB Director General (DG) S N Pradhan.

"A Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officers from Operations Branch of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Headquarters has been constituted by the Director General, NCB to take over a total of 06 cases from NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit which have national and international ramifications, in order to conduct deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages," the official statement of the NCB reads.

With this, it is clear that NCB's zonal director, Sameer Wankhede won't be conducting a probe into the Cruise Ship Drugs Case. 

"A total of 6 cases of our (Mumbai) zone will now be investigated by Delhi teams (of NCB), including Aryan Khan's case and 5 other cases," said Mutha Ashok Jain, Deputy DG, South-Western Region as he stressed that it is an administrative decision.

However, issuing a statement, Sanjay Kumar Singh IPS Deputy Director General (Ops) NCB Headquarters, said that no officer or officers have been REMOVED from their present roles and (they) will continue to assist the Operations Branch investigation as required until any specific orders are issued to the contrary.

This means that Wankhede, who is presently facing several personal and service-related allegations, will continue to be the director of the Mumbai zone of NCB. Importantly, in its official statement, it has been 'reiterated' that the Agency functions across India as a single integrated agency. 

Speaking on this development, Wankheded issued a statement saying that he has not been removed from the investigation and that it was a coordination b/w NCB teams of Delhi & Mumbai.

"It was my writ petition in court that the matter be probed by a central agency. So Aryan Khan case & Sameer Khan case are being probed by Delhi NCB's SIT," he further added.

As reported by PTI, apart from the cruise drugs case, the one involving the son-in-law of Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik, who had launched a tirade against Wankhede and leveled several allegations against him, has also been shifted out of the Mumbai zonal unit, according to officials.

The Mumbai Police has already appointed a four-member team to investigate the extortion allegations leveled against the Narcotics Control Bureau's Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.

The Joint Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre Patil issued the order on Wednesday directing Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dilip Sawant to supervise the probe.

The allegations of extortion originated from a notarized affidavit of panch witness Prabhakar Sail. According to NCB, Sail is witness to the raid and alleged seizure of 6 grams of charas from Aryan Khan's friend – Arbaaz. Khan and Arbaaz were apprehended together.