Mumbai: Amid allegations of forgery and extortion against Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer Sameer Wankhede by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Minister Nawab Malik, Wankhede’s wife, actor Kranti Redkar, sought justice from Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Thursday, invoking her Marathi roots and her respect for Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
Redkar, who has worked extensively in the Marathi film industry, tweeted an undated typed letter addressed to Thackeray, signing it off as “your sister, Kranti Redkar”. She tagged Thackeray’s personal assistant, Milind Narvekar, and the Twitter accounts of a bunch of television channels.
माननीय उद्धव ठाकरे साहेब @CMOMaharashtra पत्रास करण की … pic.twitter.com/0VJxURk5oi
— Kranti Redkar Wankhede (@KrantiRedkar) October 28, 2021
“I am a Marathi girl who has grown up seeing Shiv Sena fight for the rights and justice of the Marathi manus. I have grown up keeping the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Hinduhriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray. Both have taught me to not be unjust to others, and definitely don’t bear the injustice being meted out to you by someone else,” Redkar said in her letter to the CM.
“I am etching the same lesson when I stand alone against all those miscreants making attacks on my personal life. I am fighting and the people on social media are just seeing the show,” she added.
Redkar’s husband Wankhede, zonal director of the NCB, is the officer who raided Cordelia, a Goa-bound cruise ship on 2 October this year and arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, among others, for allegedly planning to consume drugs on the cruise.
Aryan Khan — along with Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha — was given bail Thursday by the Bombay High Court.
Wankhede and NCP State Minister Nawab Malik have been caught in a conflict since then, with Malik making allegations of forgery and extortion against the former. To support his claims he has released Wankhede’s personal documents and photographs in public domain.
Shiv Sena leaders have not been too strongly vocal about the case, though the party’s spokespersons such as Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant have made statements saying Wankhede is not bigger than the law and allegations against him are serious and need to be probed.
However, the party has also said that it is not right to bring in the personal life of an officer while criticising such a controversial issue.
In an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana Tuesday, the Sena said, “State Minister Nawab Malik has been pursuing this issue right since the beginning. It is his democratic right. But, it is also true that while criticising on such a contentious issue, the personal life of an officer should not be pulled into the discussion. There is no problem in harsh criticism, but it should be seen that it is limited to the official action.”
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‘We see Balasaheb’s shadow in you’
Redkar has been a part of the Marathi film industry for the past two decades and has also directed a film, Kaakan, in 2014. She is known widely for her appearance with actor Bharat Jadhav in the song ‘Kombdi Palali’ from the Marathi film Jatra. Katrina Kaif’s Chikni Chameli item number in the film Agnipath is based on the song. She had a very brief stint in Bollywood in 2003 when she played the role of a kidnapped girl in Prakash Jha’s Gangajal.
She married Wankhede in 2017 and the couple has twin daughters.
In her letter to Uddhav, Redkar said Bal Thackeray would not have agreed with how her family is being targeted with their personal details being paraded in the public domain.
“Every morning our reputation is maligned in public when we have nothing to do with this. A women’s (sic) reputation is being played with in the state of Chhattrapati Shivaji. It has become a joke. If Balasaheb was here today he would have definitely not agreed with this,” she wrote.
“Today, he is not there but you are here. We see his shadow, his image in you. You are leading us and we have complete faith in you. You will never let there be any injustice to me or my family I am sure of this. So, I am looking to you as a Marathi manus with expectations of justice. I request you to do what is appropriate,” she added.
Also read: For those cheering NCB’s Sameer Wankhede on Twitter, you maybe liking a fake account
Malik versus Wankhede
With repeated press conferences since 6 October, NCP’s Malik has been questioning the case involving Aryan Khan as “fake” and been attempting to pick holes in it.
Since the past week, the conflict between Malik and Wankhede intensified after the former released the NCB officer’s birth certificate that shows his father’s name as “Dawood Wankhede” instead of “Dnyandev Wankhede”, as the IRS officer’s service records show. With the document, Malik alleged that Wankhede is originally Muslim and has forged documents to enter the civil services under the Scheduled Caste category.
Malik also released details of Wankhede’s first marriage to a Muslim woman, including the amount paid as “mehr”.
Malik released details of Wankhede’s trip to the Maldives during the pandemic when a number of Bollywood personalities were holidaying at the archipelago. The NCP leader alleged that Wankhede was running an extortion racket.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: NCB’s Sameer Wankhede writes to Mumbai Police chief, seeks protection against being framed