Sameer Wankhede visits NCB's Delhi headquarters hours after meeting NCSC chief, submits caste documents

New Delhi: NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Monday visited the federal anti-narcotics agency’s headquarters here and met senior officers, officials said. Wankhede was seen entering the head office of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the national capital’s R K Puram area soon after he met National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairperson Vijay Sampla. “I have presented all the documents and facts as sought by the commission (NCSC)… there will be a verification of my complaint and the honourable chairperson will soon give you a response,” Wankhede told reporters after the meeting. Fighting allegations that he forged his caste certificate and other documents to secure a job as an IRS officer under the SC quota after clearing the UPSC examination, Wankedhe earlier presented his original caste papers to Sampla to prove he is a Dalit. Officials said Wankhede visited the NCB headquarters for some “official work”. It was not immediately known if he met NCB director general S N Pradhan or deputy director general (northern region) Gyaneshwar Singh. He had last visited the NCB headquarters here on October 26. Officials had said the visit of the Mumbai NCB director was with regard to a review meeting. Singh is conducting a departmental vigilance probe into allegations of extortion made in the drugs-on-cruise case in which Wankhede and his team had arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and seven others on October 3 from the international cruise terminal in Mumbai. At least 20 people have been arrested in this case till now. Prabhakar Sail, an independent witness in the cruise drugs case, had claimed and filed an affidavit that there was an extortion bid of Rs 25 crore by some agency officials and others for letting off Aryan Khan from the case. Sail had stated that he overheard that a “bribe” of Rs 8 crore was to be paid to Wankhede out of this money. The Mumbai NCB chief has denied these claims. Sail claims to be the bodyguard of a private person and another witness in this case, K P Gosavi, who was recently arrested by the Pune police in a fraud case pending against him. Gosavi’s close proximity and photographs with Aryan Khan during NCB raids had raised questions. They are part of the agency’s departmental vigilance probe. Statements of Wankhede and some Mumbai zone officers have already been recorded by the five-member vigilance team headed by Singh.