New Delhi: The Aryan Khan drugs seizure case so far being investigated by Mumbai zonal chief Sameer Wankhede has been transferred to the Delhi Branch, to carry out a “deeper investigation” in the case, sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) confirmed to ThePrint.
The probe in the case involving Aryan Khan will now be headed by Deputy Director General Sanjay Singh and his team in New Delhi.
“A Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officers from Operations Branch NCB Headquarters has been constituted by the Director General, NCB to take over a total of six cases from NCB’s Mumbai Zonal Unit, which have national and international ramifications, in order to conduct deeper investigation to find out forward and backward linkages,” a source said.
In an official statement, NCB clarified that “no officer has been removed from their present role”.
“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,” the statement stated.
“It is reiterated that the NCB functions across India as a single integrated agency,” the statement added.
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“Non-issue”
Wankhade, however, told ThePrint that he is still the Mumbai Zonal Director of the NCB and in the writ petition filed in the Bombay High Court he had asked a central agency to look into the allegations. He also said that instead of him, his senior will now be supervising the case and it is a “non-issue”.
Wankhede had approached the high court seeking transfer of the Mumbai Police probe into complaints of alleged extortion against NCB officers, including himself, to the CBI.
Wankhede is also facing an NCB vigilance probe into allegations leveled by Prabhakar Sail, a witness in the cruise ship case. Sail has alleged an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by agency officials and independent witnesses to let off Aryan.
A five-member vigilance probe team, including DDG Gyaneshwar Singh, went to Mumbai last week to begin the departmental inquiry and collected some documents and recordings from the NCB office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai. A statement of Wankhade was also recorded by the NCB officers.
Following this Wankhede had moved the high court seeking interim protection from arrest or any coercive action against him. He also sought an urgent hearing of his plea challenging the Mumbai police’s decision to form a four-member team to investigate the allegations of extortion and corruption against him.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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