CBI grills Sameer Wankhede for second day in row
New Delhi, May 21
Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)’s Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede today again appeared before the CBI for the second time in as many days for questioning. The agency quizzed him for more than five hours in connection with the probe into the alleged Rs 25 crore bribe demand from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan in the Cordelia cruise ‘drug bust’ case, officials said.
Wankhede, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was questioned by the CBI at its office in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla complex, the officials said.
While entering the CBI office in the morning, Wankhede told reporters he had “faith in the judiciary”. He was allowed a lunch break during questioning, the officials said, adding that Wankhede left the CBI office around 4.30 pm.
On Saturday, too, the CBI questioned Wankhede for more than five hours.
On May 11, the CBI registered an FIR against Wankhede and four others on a complaint it received from the NCB over criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion, besides allegations pertaining to bribery.
On Friday, Wankhede got relief from the Bombay High Court which directed the CBI not to take any “coercive action” (such as arrest) against him till May 22.
Seeking the quashing of the FIR, Wankhede had alleged before the HC that the “draft complaint” in the 2021 drugs-on-cruise case named Aryan Khan as an accused, but it was later replaced and Aryan’s name was dropped.
Aryan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021, following the alleged drug seizure on board the Cordelia. He was granted bail by the High Court three weeks later as the anti-drugs agency failed to substantiate its charges against him.
The CBI alleged the NCB’s Mumbai zone received information in October 2021 regarding the consumption and possession of narcotic substances by various individuals on the cruise ship, and some NCB officers conspired to take bribe from the accused to let them off.
