Sameer Wankhede moves HC to seek quashing of CBI FIR against him

NEW DELHI, MAY 19: Former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede on Friday moved a petition before the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of an FIR filed against him by the CBI for allegedly demanding Rs 25 crore bribe from superstar Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son Aryan Khan in the Cordelia cruise drug bust case.

In the petition moved before a vacation bench of the high court, Wankhede also sought that no coercive action related to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) first information report (FIR) be taken against him. The bench will hear his plea later in the day. The CBI filed the FIR against Wankhede and four others recently.

Aryan Khan was arrested by the NCB on October 3, 2021 after a raid on the Cordelia cruise ship. He was granted bail by the Bombay High Court after three weeks as the anti-drug agency failed to substantiate its charges against him. The CBI booked Wankhede and others for alleged criminal conspiracy and threat of extortion, besides under provisions pertaining to bribery under the Prevention of Corruption Act on a complaint by the NCB.

The probe agency has alleged that the NCB, Mumbai Zone, had received information in October 2021 related to the consumption and possession of narcotics substances by various individuals on the private cruise ship and that some of its officers conspired and obtained undue advantage in the form of bribes from the alleged accused.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted protection from coercive action to Wankhede for five days with the liberty to approach the appropriate forum, which would be the Bombay High Court. The CBI summoned Wankhede for questioning in Mumbai on Thursday in connection with the case, but he did not appear before the agency’s team.

-TNIE