ED files money laundering case against former NCB Mumbai regional director Sameer Wankhede

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against former Mumbai NCB regional director Sameer Wankhede for allegedly demanding a Rs 25-crore bribe from the family of superstar Shah Rukh Khan to shield his son from drug cases, official sources said. Admission of CBI FIR. Saturday. The central agency has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

Some former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials have also been summoned. Wankhede, a 2008-batch officer of the Customs and Indirect Taxes cadre of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), had moved the Bombay High Court seeking protection from any enforcement action by the anti-money laundering agency.

Officials said he was investigated by India’s central government in May last year over allegations he sought a 250 million rupee bribe for not framing Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan in the cruise ship drugs case. Bureau (CBI) registered a case. Aryan Khan was arrested on October 2, 2021, in an alleged drug case on board the Cordelia cruise ship.

Acting on the NCB complaint, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy (120-B IPC) and extortion threats (388 IPC), besides bribery provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Registered. A year later, the NCB indicted 14 accused in the cruise ship drugs case but cleared Aryan Khan.

The much-hyped case took a turn in 2021 when an “independent witness” alleged that an NCB official and others, including witness Gosawi, demanded Rs 25 crore to free Aryan Khan. The NCB subsequently conducted an internal vigilance investigation against Wankhede and others and shared the contents of the investigation with the CBI, ultimately registering a case against him.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from associated news agency – PTI)