Former Mumbai NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede Moves Bombay High Court For Protection From Arrest In ED's Money Laundering Case

Former Mumbai NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede has approached the Bombay High Court seeking protection from coercive action amongst other reliefs in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) money laundering case filed against him.

The ED's money laundering case against Wankhede is based in a 2023 FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging a Rs 25 crore bribe demand from several accused's kin, including Shah Rukh Khan's family to spare his son Aryan Khan in the 2021 Cordelia Cruise Drugs case.

In his petition filed through Advocate Karan Jain, Wankhede has also sought an interim order protecting him from any coercive measures, a stay on investigation and quashing of the ECIR against him.

The petition contends that the ED case was filed as a counterblast to Wankhede's complaint against NCB's Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh before a Delhi court under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities), Act, 1989, as well as his contempt case against Singh before the Delhi High Court.

The Delhi Court on February 6 sought an action taken report from the Delhi Police on the complaint filed by Sameer Wankhede against IPS Officer and NCB DDG Gyaneshwar Singh. According to a Mid-Day report, Wankhede's complaint was closed on February 5 by the National Commission of Scheduled Castes based on a Delhi Police report stating that Wankhede's allegations could not be substantiated. Wankhede's contempt case was rejected by the Delhi High Court recently.

The petition claims that sudden action of ED on the CBI FIR and the ECIR shows vendetta and malice against Wankhede. Wankhede has claimed that Singh and other powerful people have involved the agencies like CBI, ED, and NCB, to frame him.

Wankhede is a 2008-batch IRS officer from the reserved category. As former head of the NCB Zonal Unit, Wankhede had led raids where the Cordelia Cruise Ship was docked on October 2, 2021.

Aryan Khan, arrested in the drug bust in October 2021, was subsequently exonerated by the NCB. The NCB subsequently filed a complaint to the CBI against Wankhede, leading to the registration of CBI's case against him and others last year.

CBI registered a case against Wankhede for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 25 crores to refrain from implicating Shah Rukh Khan's son in the Cordelia Cruise Drugs case. The Bombay HC granted him interim protection from arrest in his petition seeking quashing of the CBI FIR.