New Delhi:

Unlike the Sameer Wankhede case, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has changed the officer heading the Special Investigation Team (SET) and appointed a new Central Vigilance Officer (CVO). The investigative agency described the transfer as “routine.”

New Vigilance Officer Neeraj Kumar Gupta has been appointed as CVO for a period of three months after former Mumbai zonal chief Sameer Wankhede made “serious allegations” following the 2021 cruise ship drugs case.

Neeraj Kumar Gupta, deputy director general (special branch) of the finance ministry, a 2005-batch Kerala IPS cadre officer, has been appointed as “part-time” CVO for a period of three months, an order said.

NCB officials said a new officer has been appointed after the completion of the tenure of IPS officer Gyaneshwar Singh of the SET, who was investigating the Wankhede case.

“Singh was replaced by Gupta in line with the official procedure of replacing the chief financial officer every three years,” a senior official said.

According to him, Mr. Singh wrote to NCB Director General (DG) SN Pradhan and stated that he wanted to “recuse” the CVO post on two grounds: heavy workload in the operational unit he headed and a number of anonymous complaints against him and He did not want a conflict of interest to arise.

“As Singh’s three-year term has come to an end, it is appropriate to appoint a new chief financial officer, and given that he has full-time responsibility for coordinating the agency’s domestic and international operations, he himself has sought to hand over this charge and all its field forces and other law enforcement agencies,” a source said.

Mr. Singh, a 1999-batch Indian Police Service officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, is currently posted as DDG (Operations, Enforcement and Operational Control) at the NCB headquarters and has been designated as CVO for the last three years.

The CVO has the power to investigate complaints against officials and staff of the NCB, which investigates high-profile and sensitive drug trafficking cases in addition to handling other vigilance and anti-corruption matters.

The report prepared by the CVO will be sent to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), cadre control authorities and other agencies for further action.

Singh’s operation most recently seized 3,300 kilograms of drugs off the coast of Gujarat in February, the largest maritime drug bust in India’s history, and also busted a gang allegedly led by sacked official Jaffer Sadiq international drug trafficking gang. Member of DMK in Tamil Nadu.

NCB SET under Singh found Mr Wankhede and his team culpable on two main counts – alleged irregularities in drug raids on cruise ships and violation of Central Civil Service (CCS) rules.

The SET submitted the report to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which found that Mr Singh could not have been part of the investigation team formed to probe alleged procedural lapses by IRS officer Wankhede in the Cordelia cruise drugs case.

The CAT also dismissed the agency’s request for review of the order.

The Mumbai NCB under Mr. Wankhede arrested actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and Aryan Khan on drug charges in October 2021 after they raided a cruise ship docked in Mumbai. Some other people. Additional NCB deputy director general Sanjay Kumar Singh was granted sanction to go on voluntary retirement (VRS) on Thursday.

Sanjay Kumar Singh, a 1996-batch IPS officer of the Odisha cadre, led a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the NCB, which cited “lack of evidence”. Clear tickets were issued to Aryan Khan and five others, and loopholes were discovered in the investigation. The investigation by the Mumbai NCB, headed by Mr. Wankhede, hit the headlines in this case.

Sanjay Kumar Singh, currently serving as deputy director general (southwest and south zone), is probing Mr Wankhede’s role in two other NCB probes in Mumbai. He will leave the agency on April 30.